_Leucosticte campestris_, BAIRD, COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 163, 1870.
SP. CHAR. Body light chocolate-brown, the feathers edged with paler,
those of the back with rather darker centres. Feathers of anal region,
flanks behind, crissum, rump, and upper tail-coverts, wing-coverts,
and primary quills, edged with rose-red; secondary quills and
tail-feathers with pale fulvous; little or no trace of rose on under
wings. Forehead and patch on crown blackish; the hind head to nape,
cheeks immediately under the eye (but not including the auriculars,
except, perhaps, the most anterior) and base of lower mandible all
round, ashy-gray. Throat dusky. Bill yellowish, with dusky tip. Legs
dusky.
No. 41,527, near Denver City, Col., January, 1862 (DR. C. WERNIGK).
Length, 7.00; wing, 4.00; tail, 3.00; exposed portion of first
primary, 3.10. Bill from forehead, .60; from nostril, .40; tarsus,
.75; middle toe and claw, .80; claw alone .24; hind toe and claw, .80;
claw alone, .37.
HAB. Colorado Territory (DR. WERNIGK); Wyoming Territory (MR. H. R.
DURKEE).
This form bears a close resemblance to _L. tephrocotis_, and may,
indeed, be a variety of it; but as it differs in the characters that
appear generally to be those most constant in _Leucosticte_, and as,
in fifty skins of the _tephrocotis_ from one locality, we have seen
nothing like it, we are inclined to consider them distinct. The size
and general appearance are much the same, the difference being that in
_tephrocotis_ the whole cheeks are chocolate below the level of the
eye, the chin without any gray; while in _campestris_ the sides of
head below the eye, but not including the ears, with a narrow border
of the chin, are of this color.
From _littoralis_ this form may be distinguished by the less extent of
ash on the cheeks, which in _littoralis_ covers the whole ears, and
extends back farther on the head all round. _L. griseinucha_ is marked
like _littoralis_, and is much larger than either. Possibly it may be
well to entertain the idea of its being a hybrid between _tephrocotis_
and _littoralis_ or _griseinucha_.
The specimen described was presented to the Smithsonian Institution by
Dr. Wernigk, and at the time was supposed to be _L. tephrocotis_.
Of this form, nothing as to its habits is known with certainty. It
probably does not differ in any important respect from the allied
races.
Leucosticte tephrocotis, var. littoralis, BAIRD.