_Passer arctous_, var. γ, PALLAS, Zoög. Rosso-asiat. II (1831), 23.
_Fringilla (Linaria) griseinucha_, BRANDT, Bull. Acad. St.
Petersburg, Nov. 1841, 36. _Montifringilla (Leucosticte)
griseinucha_, BON. & SCHL. Mon. Loxiens (1850), 35, pl. xli.
_Leucosticte griseinucha_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 430.—KITTLITZ,
Denkwürdigkeiten (1858), I, 291.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. Sc.
I, 1869, 282.—BAIRD, IB. p. 317, pl. xxviii, f. 2.—ELLIOT, Illust.
Am. B. pl. xi.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 161. _Leucosticte griseigenys_,
GOULD, Voy. Sulphur.
SP. CHAR. Description of specimen No. 54,246: General color dark
brownish-chocolate anteriorly, the feathers of back rather darker in
the centre, and with paler edges. Forehead and crown black; rest of
the head, including the cheeks and ears, of a rather silvery gray;
throat blackish, shading off insensibly into the chocolate of breast.
Feathers of abdomen (and hinder part of breast to a less degree),
flanks and crissum, with the rump and upper tail-coverts, and lesser
and middle wing-coverts, tipped with dark pomegranate or rose-red,
allowing more or less of thin dusky bases to be seen, especially
above, where there is an appearance of bars. Wing and tail feathers
brown, nearly all, including the greater wing-coverts, edged with pale
yellowish-gray with only a faint tinge of rose. Bill dusky; darkest at
tip. Legs black.
Dimensions: Total length, 7.50; wing, 4.80; tail, 3.50. Exposed
portion of first primary, 3.50. Bill, from forehead, .69; from
nostril, .42. Legs: tarsus, .95; middle toe and claw, .92; claw alone,
.35; hind toe and claw, .69; claw alone, .38.
HAB. Aleutian Islands (St. George’s and Unalaschka).
This is considerably the largest of the American species of
_Leucosticte_, and has a longer bill. It also has the chocolate and
rose color darker, and the rose extending farther forward on the
breast than in other species. It could only be confounded with _C.
littoralis_ as to color, both having the head above, and on the sides,
ashy, covering the whole ear-coverts; but the dusky patch on the crown
is more extended, the ash of chin more restricted, and the throat
darker. The rose extends farther along the breast, and the tints are
different. The size is much larger.
A specimen, apparently young, perhaps a female, differs in duller
tints, and a tinge of ochreous-yellow on the middle of the abdomen and
crissum. The lining of the wings is without any rose-color.
Bonaparte and Schlegel describe the young of this species as without
rose-color.
Specimens of this bird were obtained at St. George’s Island, with the
eggs (which are white), by Mr. W. H. Dall. Dr. Minor found it at
Unalaschka.
HABITS. The Gray-eared Finch is the largest species of this remarkable
genus known to inhabit North America. Thus far, except in one
instance, it has been met with only in the Aleutian Islands and
Unalaschka. In the latter place they were met with by Dr. T. T. Minor,
and in the former by Mr. Dall.
Mr. R. Brown (Ibis, 1868, p. 432) states that a single specimen of
this very rare bird was taken at Fort Rupert, Vancouver Island, in
June, 1862, by Mr. P. M. Compton, the officer in charge of that
station. This, however, may have belonged to the var. _littoralis_.
Mr. Dall states that they abound on the Pribylow and the other
Aleutian Islands. A number of specimens were obtained on the St.
George’s in August, though at that time they were moulting. At that
season this bird had no song except a clear chirp, sounding like
_wéet-a wèet-a-wée-weet_. It was on the wing a great part of the time,
rarely alighting on the ground, but darting rapidly in a series of
descending and ascending curves. At one time it would swing on the
broad top of an umbelliferous plant, and at another alight on some
ledge of the perpendicular bluff, jumping from point to point, as if
delighting to test its own agility. Mr. Dall adds that its nest is a
simple hollow on one of the ledges, provided with a few straws or a
bit of moss. They deposit their eggs in May, and these are four in
number. In August their young were fully fledged.
They feed on the seeds of grasses and other small plants, but in the
crop of one Mr. Dall found two or three small beetles. They were also
received from Kodiak, through Mr. Bischoff.
Their eggs are of a grayish-white, with a slight tinge of yellowish,
and measure .95 by .70 of an inch.