Part 273

Young.--Color pattern like that of the adult, but upper parts lighter; crown and neck dark clay-brown, cinnamon on sides of occiput and sides of neck; back with broad streaks of buff; ear-coverts, chin, and throat slate-gray and the areas not so well defined as in the adult.

The mountain, or tree, sparrow is an introduced species in the Philippine Islands. It is found in considerable numbers about Manila and in towns along the railroads. It is also abundant in the town of Cebu.

Genus SPINUS Koch, 1816.

Bill slender and acute, its distal half greatly compressed; culmen straight, without a decided ridge; wings very long, reaching nearly to the tip of tail which is forked. Colors canary-yellow, black, and white.

696. SPINUS SPINUS (Linnæus).

SISKIN.

Fringilla spinus Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 181. Chrysomitris spinus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1888), 12, 212; McGregor, Bull. Philippine Mus. (1904), 4, 24. Spinus spinus McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 104.

Calayan (McGregor). British Islands, Europe, northern Asia, and Siberia; in winter to Japan, southern China, and the Liu Kiu Islands.

Male.--General color lemon-yellow; crown and nape black; back and scapulars yellowish green with dark shaft-lines; rump yellow; tail-coverts olive-green; chin and middle of fore throat black; a band from above center of eye to neck lemon-yellow; ear-coverts washed with olive; cheeks, sides of neck and of throat, and remaining under parts bright lemon-yellow, becoming white on middle of abdomen; flanks streaked with black; feathers of thighs drab-gray tipped with white; under tail-coverts yellow with broad dusky shaft-marks and white tips; wing-feathers blackish brown; primaries, except the first, narrowly edged with yellow and, except the outer three, with a spot of yellow on outer web near the tips of the coverts, forming a bar, which is continued on the outer webs of the secondaries, each of the latter has also a large yellow spot near the tip; tertials edged with yellow, and median coverts tipped with yellowish olive; greater coverts black with olive-yellow tips; rectrices, except the middle pair, bright yellow with wide blackish brown tips, fringed with gray. A male from Calayan Island measures: Length, 114; wing, 70; tail, 43; culmen from base, 12; tarsus, 15.

Female.--Somewhat similar to the male, but the yellow much paler and more restricted; black cap and chin-spot wanting; under parts nearly all white and more heavily streaked with blackish; above olive-green with a hoary cast; head and neck spotted, and back streaked, with blackish; yellow line above and behind eye mottled with olive-green; under parts white or pale gray heavily streaked with blackish brown on sides, flanks, breast, and sides of abdomen; middle of breast and abdomen white; sides of head and of neck with obscure dusky streaks and a yellow wash. A female measures: Wing, 70; tail, 42; culmen from base, 11; tarsus, 13.

"Young birds resemble the old female, but are browner, with less yellow, so that the rump, eyebrow, and sides of face are whitish; the upper surface of the body is thickly mottled with blackish mesial streaks on all the feathers, and the under surface is white thickly spotted with blackish brown, the spots being triangular on the throat and breast, and longitudinal on the sides of the body and flanks." (Sharpe.)

The siskin as a Philippine species is known only from four specimens taken in Calayan in the month of November, 1903.

Genus EMBERIZA Linnæus, 1758.

Bill small and conical, its outlines nearly straight; cutting edge of upper mandible with a decided angle near its base; wing covering not more than one-half the tail; tips of rectrices more rounded and the tail less forked than in either Fringilla or Spinus. Plumage more or less streaked with black; outermost rectrices nearly all white, but with an oblique blackish mark near base of inner web and a small dusky mark near tip; next pair black with a long white mark near shaft.

Species.

a1. Chin and throat chestnut; no yellow on under parts; lores, sides of face, ear-coverts, and throat vinous-chestnut; remaining under parts white; breast and sides streaked with black ... pusilla (p. 683) a2. Chin and throat not chestnut; under parts more or less yellow.

b1. Throat dull ashy gray; lores and chin blackish (male). ... spodocephala (p. 684) b2. Throat and breast yellow.

c1. Sides of body and flanks reddish brown, streaked with black (female). ... spodocephala (p. 684) c2. Sides of body and flanks yellow, streaked with black ... sulphurata (p. 685)

697. EMBERIZA PUSILLA Pallas.

LITTLE BUNTING.

Emberiza pusilla Pallas, Reise Russ. Reichs (1776), 697; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1888), 12, 487; Grant, Ibis (1894), 517; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 240; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 104.

Luzon (Whitehead). Northern Europe, Siberia, and northern China; in winter to Tenasserim, Assam, Burma, and the Himalayas.

"Adult male in breeding plumage.--General color above rufous-brown, with broad black centers to the feathers, the rump rather duller brown; the scapulars chestnut with black centers; lesser wing-coverts brown; median and greater coverts black, externally edged with pale rufous-brown, with narrow white tips; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, externally fringed with brown, the primaries margined with ashy brown, the secondaries with rufous; tail-feathers blackish brown, edged with lighter brown, the penultimate feather with a long wedge-shaped mark of white on the inner web; the outer feather for the most part white, with an oblique blackish mark on the inner web, and a small dusky mark near the end of the outer web; center of crown vinous-chestnut, with a broad black streak along each side, forming a band; a superciliary line, lores, sides of face, ear-coverts, and throat vinous-chestnut, with a moustachial line of black along the under margin of the cheeks, running behind the ear-coverts; hind neck paler than the crown, and streaked with whitish like the sides of the neck; remainder of under surface of body from the lower throat downwards dull white; the center of the breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts uniform; the lower throat, fore neck, and breast, as well as the sides of the body, streaked with black; under wing-coverts and axillars white; quills dusky below, ashy along the inner web. 'Bill brown, the lower mandible whitish; feet reddish gray; iris brown.' (David.) Length, 122; culmen, 10; wing, 71; tail, 52; tarsus, 20.

"Adult female in breeding plumage.--Scarcely differs from the male, but is not quite so richly colored on the throat, and less distinctly streaked with black below.

"In winter plumage the adults are more rufous than in summer, with rufescent edges to the feathers of the upper surface, especially on the quills and tail-feathers; the black mark behind the ear-coverts is more distinct and not so broken up as in the breeding plumage; the under surface is suffused with ochraceous-buff, and the black streaks are less pronounced.

"Young.--Resembles more the adult female in winter plumage, but has scarcely any vinous tinge about the face; head rufous-brown, streaked with black, with a slight band of fulvous down the center of the crown; back fulvescent, washed with rufous and broadly streaked with black; wing-coverts broadly edged and tipped with yellowish buff; throat whitish, spotted with black like the breast; the latter as well as the flanks yellowish buff, streaked with black. After the first molt the coloration of the adult is assumed, but the plumage is always duller and much paler, and in some birds, probably females, the throat is white without any chestnut.

"Nestling.--Yellowish buff, broadly streaked with black, the head more rufous, and the ear-coverts rufous; underneath white, washed with rufous on the chin and with ochraceous-buff on the throat and breast, thickly streaked with black on the latter as well as on the flanks and sides of the body; wings and tail as in adults, with the exception that the wing-coverts are more fulvous at tips." (Sharpe.)

Whitehead collected the only specimen of the little bunting which has been recorded from the Philippine Islands.