[75.]' 1. P y r g i t a ( P i p i l o ) a r c t i c a . (Swainson.) Arctic Ground-Finch.
Sub-fa m il y , Fringillin», Sw. Genus, Pyrgita, A n tiq .. Sub-genus, Pipilo, V i e i l l .
Ch . Sp . P ip il o a rc t ic a , super nigrescens, capite collo pectoreque nigris Cinfcemina ferrugineis), dorsoscapularibus
tectricibusque albo fasciatis, retnige primo et octavo subcequalibus.
Sp . Ch . A r c t ic Gr o u n d -F in c h , . w ith the head, neck, and upper plumage blackish (in the female ferruginous-
brown) ; back, scapulars, and wing covers striped w ith w h ite; first and eighth quill feathers nearly equal.
P late l i. M a l e. P late lit. F em a le.
Of this sub-genus, which was supposed to consist but of one example, we have
now characterised no less than five additional species, four of which are typical.
The group appears confined to America, and seems to .be the Rasorial type
of the true Sparrows (Pyrgita): if so, it will consequently touch the circle of the
TanagrincB at that point which brings Pipilo into junction with such a form as
is seen in M. Vieillot’s figure of the Fringilla Xena of Linnaeus]-, a rare and most
interesting bird. The northern species comes so very close to the Mexican Pipilo
maculata, Swains., fully described and figured in the Illustrations o f Ornithology,
that we might, at first sight, be tempted to think they were the same, A more
rigid comparison, however, will detect the following distinctions:—
PIPILO ARCTICA*.
Wings with the first quill intermediate between
the seventh and eighth. The second
and sixth equal ; the third, fourth, and
fifth longest.
Greater quills exceeding the lesser in length
six-tenths of an inch.
Tarsi one inch.
Hind toe shorter than the claw.
PIPILO MACULATA.
Wings shorter, more rounded ; the first quill
much shorter than any of the primary or
secondary quills. The second and seventh
equal; the third and fifth equal; the fourth
longest.
Greater quills only four-tenths longer than
the lesser quills.
Tarsi one inch, one-tenth.
Hind toe and claw equal, or the latter somewhat
longer.
By this comparison it appears that, in Pipilo maculata, the wings are more
* Two of the specimens exhibit not the least deviation from these characters; the third, which is a smaller, and, in
all probability, a younger bird, slightly varies in the quills. We have already shewn, in our notes upon the young
Hen-Harriers, that the quill feathers do not gain their true proportions until a perfect adult age.—Sw.
f A specimen was once in the Zoological Society’s museum (see Zool. Journ., i i i p . 441), and might have furnished
materials for. solving one of the most difficult problems in Ornithology; but we are informed that it is no longer in
existence. We know not of a single example in England, nor is there one in the Paris Museum. Until the structure
of this bird is explained, some little doubt may still hang over the precise situation of Pipilo. A seventh species has
just come into our possession from Brazil, and an eighth from Mexico.—Sw.