Page 48

LARK FINCH.
the lower mandible; the chin and throat are pure white. The
neck above, the back, and rump, are dull cinereous-brown, each
feather of the interscapular region having a blackish-brown disk;
the neck beneath and breast are dull whitish-cinereous; a small
blackish-brown spot is on the middle of the breast; the belly and
vent are white. The wings are dusky-brown; the lesser wing
coverts are margined with dull cinereous; the exterior primary is
equal to the third; both are very little shorter than the second,
which is longest; the outer webs of the second, third, and fourth
primaries, being whitish near their bases, form a distinct spot on
the wing. The tail is rounded, the feathers being blackish-brown;
the two intermediate ones are immaculate, somewhat paler than
the others. The adjoining ones have a small white spot at tip,
which, on the lateral feathers, increases in size, until, on the exte-
rior one, it occupies half the total length of the feather; whilst its
exterior web is white to the base.
The female is very similar to the male, but the colours are duller,
and the stripes on the head are not so decided; the auriculars,
moreover, are yellowish-brown.
This species has the bill and feet precisely similar to those of
Wilson's Black-throated Bunting, and those other Fringillte, and
supposed Emberizav, of which I have constituted the sub-genus
Spiza, in my "Observations on Wilson's Ornithology." It cannot
be mistaken for any other species, being very peculiar in its mark-
ings and manners.
48R