NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF TENNESSEE WETMORE 241 



There remains between the two ranges indicated an area of consid- 

 erable extent, reaching in general from the region near the Mississippi 

 Eiver to eastern Texas, eastern Kansas, and northward (I do not 

 have material at hand from the section north of Kansas), in which 

 the field sparrows have the slightly smaller size found in typical 

 jmsilla of the East but are definitely paler and grayer than that bird. 

 Some are almost as gray above and below as typical arenacea. The 

 majority are somewhat browner, the brown being dull, however, with 

 gray predominating, the black streakings reduced, and the light mar- 

 gins on the secondaries paler. They are distinctly intermediate be- 

 tween the two races and are variable between the two in their color 

 characters. In the eastern section of this area of intergradation in- 

 dividual birds may verge toward the paler group, or they may be 

 reddish like true 'pusUla. This condition is found in two skins from 

 Waterloo, Mich., in which a male taken on April 30 is definitely red- 

 dish brown, and a female collected on April 16 is distinctly grayer, 

 though of the -pusilla type. Specimens from Mount Carmel, 111., 

 Wheatland, Ind., and western Kentucky are of the true pusilla type, 

 verging only slightly toward the grayer tone of birds of farther west. 



After somewhat prolonged consideration it appears to me, and to 

 some others who have examined the problem with me, that we have 

 here the ideal condition as regards the concept of subspecific groups 

 in a species of considerable range. The two races of Spizella piisiUa 

 occupy definite geographic areas with a region of intergradation as 

 they approach. To put the majority of the intergrades with the 

 western form is to place greater emphasis on color than on size, which 

 seems proper, as the size differences separating arenacea from pusilla 

 are minor and the color differences considerable. Color, therefore, 

 is more important than size. To give the series of intermediates a 

 separate name would serve in my opinion only to complicate the 

 picture, with no useful result because of the definitely mixed char- 

 acter of the population concerned. 



ZONOTRICHIA LEUCOPHRYS LEUCOPHRYS (Forster): White- 

 crowned Sparrow 



Specimens were collected near Hornbeak, April 28; near Reelfoot 

 Lake 7 miles northeast of Tiptonville, October 22; and on the Cum- 

 berland River near Indian Mound, October 27. 



ZONOTRICHIA ALBICOLLIS (Gmelin) : White-throated Sparrow 



An abundant bird at all localities worked at the proper seasons. 

 Records are as follows : Hickory Withe, April 9, 10, and 13 ; Reelfoot 

 Lake, April 24 and 26 ; Hornbeak, May 4 ; Reelfoot Lake, 4 miles south 

 of Samburg, October 13 ; Dover, October 25 and 26 ; Waynesboro, May 



