60 FEMALE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH,
A remarkable variety is exhibited,ia a changing male, which.I
shot near Philadelphia, in the month of April, and whicMds therefore
considerably advanced towards perfect plumage. All the primaries
are pure white on the outer, Iweb towards.'thei base, thus constituting,
in the most obvious manner, that white spot beyond the wing coverts*
assigned by Say as a good discriminating, mark between this species
and thé precediilg. The -fact we havé;related diminishes the value
of this character, which<is m'everthelessavery goodoné ; but as many:,
other distinctions are ; observable,.- we need not rely, exclusively upon
it* - The deviation we have'TMëreiinîentionediis the more remarkable,
as the greater numbér of fspecies allied to this bird have that Spot
either whites or yellow. ;..
y- Since writing the .above, I obtained, from one of the-large flocks
in which these birds congregate in the autumn, several spécimens (ff-
both-sexés, more or less distinguished by the marking above’ stated
as peculiar tó thé variety, y
61
LAZULI FINCH.
F E IN G IL L J l J1MOENJ1.
Plate VI. Fig*? 5.
Emberiza amoena, Sxsyin Eong’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, D, ,p. 47.
Philadelphia Museum, No.-&919.1 ■
T he genus Emberiza, though very natural, and distinguished by
well marked characters, has, notwithstanding these advantages, been
often misunderstood; and authors, without consulting the boundaries
assigned' to* -iitlhy themselves*; have recorded a copious list‘of species,
whilst in nature its’limits are much-restricted. We are not therefore
surprised, that so acute a-zoologist as Say should have arranged his
bird in that genus, particularly a&it is more closely allied to Emberiza
than many of those^not only of Wilson, but even of Linne and
Latham.
This bird, which wc havn-rno hesitation in pronouncing one of
the most beautiful offers: tribe, would be placed by Vieillot in his
genus Passerina, but according to my .classification it belongs to the
genus Fringilla, and to that American sub-genus dately established in
my “ Observations on the Nomenclature fifi Wilson’s Ornithology,”
under th'^mStne of Spiza. As a Spe'cies, it is more intimately allied
to Fringilla ciris and Fringilla which I stated in that paper
to differ so much from their'congeners, particularly in the greater
curvature of the upper' mandible, as to deserve, perhaps, a separation
into a small sub-genus by themselves: this would unite Fringilla to
* Its relation to Fringilla eyanea, considered as an Emberiza, probably induced Say to
place it under that genus.