The essential characters of this genus are the small, very convex bill, as high as long; the short broad wings, with the quills differing little in length, the outer ones graduated; the tail as long as the wings, widened towards the end, and slightly graduated, with the acuminate and mucronate tip to the feathers. Many species of the genus occur in Middle and South America, although none not readily distinguishable from the single North American one. Spermophila moreleti, PUCHERAN. LITTLE SEED-EATER. _Spermophila moreleti_, (PUCHERAN,) BONAP. Conspectus, 1850, 497.—SCLATER, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1856, 302.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 506, pl. liv, f. 2, 3.—IB. Mex. Bound. II, Birds, 17, pl. xvi, f. 2, 3. _Sporophila moreleti_, CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 150.—IB. Journ. für. Orn. IX, 1861, 4 (with synonomy). _Spermophila albigularis_, (SPIX,) LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyceum, V, Sept. 1851, 124 (Texas. Not of SPIX). SP. CHAR. The top and sides of the head, back of the neck, a broad band across the upper part of the breast extending all round, the middle of the back, the wings and tail, with the posterior upper coverts, black. The chin, upper throat and neck all round, but interrupted behind, the rump, with the remaining under and lateral portions of the body, white; the latter tinged with brownish-yellow. Two bands on the wing, across the greater and middle coverts, with the concealed bases of all the quills, also white. Length, about 4 inches; wing, 2.05; tail, 1.90. _Female._ Dull yellow; olivaceous above, brownish-yellow beneath. Wings and tail somewhat as in the male. HAB. Rio Grande of Texas; south to Costa Rica. Xalapa (SCL. 1859, 365); Oaxaca (SCL. 1859, 378); Cordova (SCL. 1856, 302); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 17; SALV. Ibis, I, 468; nest); Costa Rica (CAB. J. 1861, 4); Vera Cruz, winter, alpine region, breeding (SUM. M. B. S. I, 551). [Illustration: _Spermophila moreleti._] The specimen upon which the preceding description of the male has been based is the only one in full plumage we have seen, and was kindly lent by Mr. P. L. Sclater. It was collected in Honduras. Some of the feathers of the back have grayish tips. The specimen described by Mr. Lawrence as _S. albigularis_, though male, is, in most respects, like the female, except that the wings and tail are darker, the color of the upper part grayer, and the interscapular feathers blotched with black. The black of the head is strongly indicated, the feathers, however, all with gray margins. In this and another, a little further advanced, from San Diego, Mexico, (4096,) there is a very faint indication of the black pectoral band, and there is no trace of the whitish of the rump. HABITS. This pretty little tropical form of Sparrow can only rest a claim to be included in our fauna by its occasional presence on the Rio Grande in Texas. It is found throughout Mexico and Central America.