_Guiraca melanocephala_, SW. Syn. Mex. Birds Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 438.—BON. List, 1838.—IB. Consp. 1850, 502.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 498.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 206. _Coccothraustes melanocephala_, RICH. List, Pr. Brit. Ass. for 1836, 1837. _Fringilla melanocephala_, AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 519, pl. ccclxxiii. _Coccoborus melanocephalus_, AUD. Synopsis, 1839, 133.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 214, pl. 206.—HEERM. X, S, 51 (nest).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 228. _Goniaphea melanocephala_, SCLATER? _Hedymeles melanocephala_, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 153. _Fringilla xanthomaschalis_, WAGLER, Isis, 1831, 525. _Pitylus guttatus_, LESSON, Rev. Zoöl. II, 1839, 102. _? Guiraca tricolor_, LESSON, Rev. Zoöl. II, 1839, 102.
SP. CHAR. _Male._ Head above and on the sides, with chin, back, wings, and tail, black. A well-marked collar on the hind neck all round (and in var. _capitalis_ a more or less distinct median stripe on crown, and one behind the eye), edges of interscapular feathers, rump, and under parts generally pale brownish-orange, almost light cinnamon. Middle of belly, axillaries, and under wing-coverts, yellow. Belly just anterior to the anus, under tail-coverts, a large blotch at the end of the inner webs of first and second tail-feathers, a band across the middle and greater wing-coverts, some spots on the ends of the tertiaries, the basal portions of all the quills, and the outer three primaries near the tips, white. Length nearly 8 inches; wing, 4.25; tail, 3.50.
_Female_ has the chin, sides of throat, and superciliary stripe white; the black markings replaced by olivaceous-brown; the cinnamon markings paler, and almost white; the white of wings more restricted; that of tail wanting. Usually there are few or no streaks beneath as in _ludovicianus_ (faint ones on flanks); in young males, however, they are more appreciable. The lemon or gamboge yellow axillars and under coverts in all ages and stages separate this species from _H. ludovicianus_, the female and young of which have those regions of a saffron or fulvous yellow.
HAB. High Central Plains from Yellowstone to the Pacific. Table-lands of Mexico. Xalapa (SCL. 1859, 365); Orizaba (SCL. 1857, 213); Vera Cruz, Alpine and plateau, breeding (SUM. M. B. S. I, 551).