DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SHARP-TAILED SPARROW FROM CAL- 

 IFORNIA. 



BY 



Robert Ridgway, 



Curator of tJte Department of Birds. 

 Aramodramus caudacutus becki, subsp. nov. 



SuBSr. ciiAR: Similar to A. cautlaeutKH neJfioni^ but bill very much 

 more s]«Mi(li'r, back more liea\'ily marked with black, butl" of anterior and 

 lateral uiulcr parts more creamy, and clie.st less distinctly' streaked. 



Adult (No. 120310, Mili)itas, Santa Clara County, California, May 6, 

 1S91; KoUo H. Beck): Pileum deep bistre-brown, darker, or mixed witU 

 blackish laterally, and divided loiij,ntndinally by a rather broad though 

 indistinct dusky grayish median stripe; hind neck mixed tawny- 

 brown and lii;ht grayish; interscapulars black, mixed with tawny 

 olive brown (the last predominating along the median line of the back), 

 the feathers, es])e('ially those toward the scapulars, broadly edged with 

 grayish white, tinged, especially on middle of back, with buffy; scapu- 

 lars dull tawny-brown, each with a central or median elongated spot of 

 blackish; greater wing-coverts with outer surface mainly tawny-brown, 

 paler at tips, the subtermiual portion with a dusky, ill-delined, mostly 

 concealed, spot; tertials black centrally, margined (broadly on outer 

 webs) with tawny-brown, fa<ling to whitish on outer web of tirst and 

 terminal i)oition of outer web of second feather. Lower l)ack and rump 

 light grayish tawny or Isabella color, rather indistijictly streaked with 

 dusky; upper tail-coverts similar but more butl'y, with dusky streaks 

 more distinct. Tail-feathers light grayish brown, edged with a more 

 bulVy hue (the two outermost with pale buffy grayish), and marked with 

 a median streak of dusky. Sides of head, including a broad supercil- 

 iary stripe, tawny ochraceous, interrupted by a grayish olive auricular 

 patch; sides of neck, immediately behind the latter with a small blacUsh 

 blotch. Chin, throat, chest, sides. Hanks, and under tail coverts bull", 

 deei)est on chest, which, with sides and Hanks, are streaked with l)rown- 

 ish black, the streaks less distinct on chest; breast and belly plain 

 white. Bill grayish horn color (bluish in life ?), with upper mandible 

 mainly blackish; legs and feet light horn color. Length (skin), 4..5a; 

 wing, 2.15; tail, 1.00; exposed culmen, 0.38; depth of bill at base, 0.20; 

 tarsus, 0.78; middle toe, 0..58. 



In the very slender bill, tin* larg(» amount of black on the bade, and 



Proceedings Xatioii.tl Museum, Vol. XIV— No. 872. 



