Vol. 32, pp. 243-244 December 31, 1919 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW SUBSPECIES OF PRUNELLA MODULARIS 

 FROM THE PYRENEES. 



BY FRANCIS HARPER. 



During a week's collecting in the Pyrenees in April, 1919, the 

 writer secured several examples of the Hedge Sparrow (Prunella 

 modularis) . These appear, upon examination, to represent an 

 undescribed race, which may be known as follows : 



Prunella modularis mabbotti, 1 subsp. nov. 



Subspecific characters. — Distinguishable at a glance from both Prunella 

 modularis modularis, of central Europe, and P. m. occidentalis, of the British 

 Isles, by the much grayer, less rufescent coloration of the back and wings 

 ( tae edgings of the feathers of these parts buffy brown and smoke gray in- 

 stead of cinnamon-brown, as in the two other forms mentioned). 2 



Type locality. — At timber-line (altitude about 1700 meters) on a moun- 

 tain about three kilometers south of Saillagouse, Dept. of Pyrenees-Orien- 

 tales, France. 



Type specimen. — No. 256755, TJ. S. National Museum; adult male; col- 

 lected April 24, 1919, by Francis Harper. 



Geographic range. — Specimens examined only from the Departments of 

 Pyr6nees-Orientales and Ariege, France ; probably restricted, at least during 

 the breeding season, to the Pyrenees and adjacent parts of southern France 

 and northern Spain. 



Description of type. — Pileum and nape mouse gray, broadly but very in- 

 distinctly streaked with olive-brown; scapulars and interscapulars with 

 broad mesial streaks of black, and edged with buffy brown and smoke gray; 

 rump and upper tail-coverts olive-brown; tail fuscous; wings fuscous, the 

 exposed edges of the feathers buffy brown (paler on the tertials); median 

 and greater coverts slightly tipped with whitish; malar and auricular regions 

 olive-brown, finely streaked with whitish; under parts mouse gray, lighter 



i Named for Douglas Clifford Mabbott, an American ornithologist, who fell in the 

 cause of human liberty near Thiaucourt, France, on September 15, 1918. 



^Colors given herein are those of Ridgway (Color Standards and Color Nomenclature 

 1912). 



50— Pboc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 32, 1919. (243) 



