_Fringilla frontalis_, SAY, Long’s Exped. R. Mts. II, 1824, 40. (For
other synonymes see under the different varieties.)
SP. CHAR. Bill short, nearly as deep as broad; culmen much curved,
commissure arched; lower mandible nearly as deep as the upper. Tail
more than three fourths as long as wing, slightly emarginated. Wing
and tail feathers without reddish edges; lower tail-coverts and
abdomen with broad streaks of dusky. General color above, including
wings, tail, and upper tail-coverts, brownish-gray, the feathers with
lighter edges. Beneath white, each feather with a medial streak of
dusky. _Male._ A broad frontal crescent, extending back in a
superciliary stripe to the occiput, a patch on the rump (not the upper
tail-coverts), and an area covering cheeks, chin, throat, and jugulum
red,—bright scarlet in spring, rosy in fall. _Female_ without the red,
which is replaced by a uniform streaking. _Young_ resembling the
female, but streaks less sharply defined; those above more distinct.
Wing-coverts broadly edged with light earth-brown.
This species inhabits the western regions of North America, from the
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific; and Mexico, except, perhaps, the
eastern portion. In this range of distribution it occurs in three
races, which, taking extreme examples, are well marked, but when a
large series is examined are found to grade insensibly into each
other.
The above description is general, being modified only by _additional_
characters in the several races. The normal plumage is perhaps
represented in the central race,—the true _frontalis_, as
restricted,—which inhabits the Middle Province of the United States,
and is nearly as described above; the red of the male of this style is
of a bright scarlet tint, and in nearly all specimens shows a tendency
to escape the boundaries above indicated. As we go south into Mexico,
we find the red strictly confined within those limits, very sharply
defined; and, under the tropical influence, intensified into a very
bright carmine tint; this latter is the _C. hæmorrhous_ of authors.
Following the var. _frontalis_ westward, we find it gradually
changing, the red invading more and more the other portions, until, in
specimens from the coast of California and from Cape St. Lucas, it is
spread over all portions, except the anal region, wing, and
tail,—though always brightest within those outlines which confine it
in the two preceding varieties. In extreme examples of the latter
race,—the _C. rhodocolpus_ of Cabanis,—the red even obliterates the
streaks on the abdomen. The spreading of the red is seen in other
birds of the Pacific region, this case being exactly paralleled by the
_Sphyropicus ruber_, in its relation to _S. nuchalis_ or _S. varius_.
The females and young of the three races are quite difficult to
distinguish from each other, the locality being the best means of
identifying them.
Carpodacus frontalis, var. frontalis, GRAY.