Note 158 — {188} CHAPTER IX {VII}

1. Fringilla psaltria, Say.—A very pretty little bird, was frequently seen hopping about in the low trees or bushes, singing sweetly, somewhat in the manner of the American gold-finch, or Hemp-bird (Fringilla tristis). The tints, and the distribution of the colours of its plumage resemble, in a considerable degree, those of the autumnal and less brilliant vesture of that well-known species. It may, however, be distinguished, in addition to other differences, by the black tip of its tail-feathers, and the white wing spot.

The head is capped with black; the cheeks are dusky; the bill yellow, with a black tip; iris burnt umber; neck above, and half its side, back, and rump olivaceous, more or less intermixed with dusky; smaller wing coverts blackish, edged with olivaceous; greater wing coverts brown-black, tipped with white, forming a narrow band; primaries fuscous, and, excepting the exterior one, slightly edged with white; third, fourth, and fifth feathers white towards the base, so as to exhibit a white spot beyond the wing coverts; secondaries margined with white exteriorly towards their tips: tail coverts black, varied with olivaceous on their shafts; tail emarginate, feathers blackish, slightly edged with dull whitish; the three exterior ones pure white on their inner webs, excepting at base and tip; all beneath yellow; feet pale. A specimen is deposited in the Philadelphia Museum.

2. Fringilla frontalis, Say.—Crimson-necked Finch. Head, throat, neck beneath, and upper portion of the breast brilliant crimson, most intense near the bill and over the eyes; rump and tail coverts paler crimson; between the bill and the eye grey; bill dark horn colour, lower mandible paler; vertex, occiput, neck above and each side brown, tinged with reddish, the feathers margined with pale; back dusky brownish; wings and tail fuscous, the latter feathers edged on the inner side with white; the primaries broadly margined within, towards the base, with white, and exteriorly edged with a grayish; coverts and tertials edged with dull grayish; inferior portion of the breast, the belly, and vent whitish, each feather with a broad fuscous line.

Female, dusky brown, the feathers margined each side with dull whitish; wings fuscous, the margining and edging of the feathers not as distinct as in the male; all beneath, excepting the tail and wing feathers, whitish, each feather with a brown streak.

This bird is much more closely allied, both in size and colouring, to the purple Finch (F. purpurea) than to the crimson-headed Finch (F. rosea), and may prove to be only a variety of it, when a comparison of many individuals can be made. The male, from which the above description is drawn out, may not be in its ultimate state of plumage, as it seems probable that the middle of the head, the upper part of the neck, and the back, in the perfect plumage, is more obviously tinted with crimson than we have observed those parts to be. It differs, however, from the Purple Finch in the tint of the crimson colour, which is far more lively and brilliant, and also in having each feather of the belly, vent, and inferior tail coverts broadly streaked with brown. We apply to it provisionally the name of F. frontalis. A prepared specimen of this bird is in the Philadelphia Museum.—James.