280 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Only one species of this southern genus is known to occur in 

 Illinois. Another however, may be expected, at least as a straggler, 

 and for this reason the comparative characters of the two are given 

 here. 



1. P. sestivalis. Adult: Above reddish brown, streaked with gray, and usually spotted 

 on the back with black; beneath dull buffy, whitish on the belly. Middle tail-feathers 

 without distinct bars. 



a. cestivalis. Crown streaked with blackish, and black streaks on back always 

 very distinct. Hal>. Florida and lower Georgia. 



/?. bachmanii. Crown without black streaks, and black streaks on back frequently 

 obsolete: general coloration much more "sandy" above, and clearer, or less 

 dingy, buff below. Halt. North and South Carolina, west to eastern Texas, north 

 to southern Illinois and Indiana. 



2. P. cassini. Above brownish gray, spotted with grayish brown and black, but with no 

 rusty; lower parts nearly uniform brownish white or pale brownish gray. Middle 

 tail-feathers very distinctly barred with dusky. Halt, Southwestern U. S., north to 

 Kansas. 



Peucsea sestivalis bachmanii (And.) 



BACHMAN'S SPARROW. 



Popular synonyms. Illinois Sparrow; Oak-wood Sparrow; Bachman's Finch. 



Peuccea cestivalis RIDGW. Am. Nat., July 1872, 430 (Wabash Co., Illinois); Ann. N. Y. 

 Lye. x, Jan. 1874,373 (do.); Proc. Boston Soc. xvi, Feb. 18, 1874, 308, 326 (do., summer 

 resid.); Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club.iii, Oct. 1878, 164 ("extremely local and quite rare"). 

 NELSON, Bull. Essex. Inst., ix,1877, 36,49 (Mt. Carmel, Wabash Co., and Fox Prairie, 

 Richland Co., Illinois). 



Peuccea illinoensis RIDGW. Bull. Nutt. Orn Club, Oct. 1879, 219 (southern Illlinois to 



central Texas). 

 Peucaia cestivalis illinoensis RIDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 2267. COUES, 2d Check 



List, 1882, No. 252. 

 Peuccea cestivalis bachmani BKEWST. Auk, ii, Jan. 1885,106. 



HAB. Open woods, old fields, etc., in semi-prairie districts of the lower Mississippi 

 Valley and Gulf States; north in summer to Richland, Lawrence, and Wabash counties, 

 Illinois; Knox and Monroe counties,* Indiana; and Nelson county, Kentucky; east to 

 Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, Alabama, and the Carolinas; southwest to "Lower Cross 

 Timbers" and "Post Oak Woods" of Cook county, Texas. 



SP. CHAE. Adult. Above sandy ferruginous, indistinctly streaked with light ash-gray, 

 these streaks broadest on the back and middle line of the crown; interscapulars some- 

 times marked with narrow central streaks of black. Outer surface of the wings light fer- 

 ruginous, the greater coverts less reddish and edged with paler; tertials dusky brown, 

 bordered terminally with pale reddish ashy ; outer surface of the secondariesferruginous. 

 Tail uniform grayish brown, the edges of the feathers more ashy. Sides of the head and 

 neck, throat, jugulum, and entire sides, deep dingy buff, this color most distinct across 



*In a letter dated April 27, 1864, Professor David S. Jordan, President of the Indiana 

 State University, writes me as follows: "It may perhaps interest you to know that two 

 specimens of Peuccea cestivalis illinoensis have been taken at Bloomington (April 24). 

 They were shot in a brush hear*" 



