SHARPE'S SEEDEATER 325 



"Immature males are variously intermediate in coloration between 

 the fully adult male, as described above, and the adult female, two or 

 three years being probably required for attainment of the full plumage. 

 Some freshly molted adult males, especially those showing traces of 

 immaturity, have the under parts posterior to the black jugular band 

 more or less buffy, sometimes quite strongly so. These occur in same 

 localities as sjjecimens with the same parts pure white." 



Lawrence (1889) adds the following: "The most mature males of S. 

 sharpei are grayish above, with the crown and sides of the head black, 

 and the back blotched with black; the under parts are pale fulvous 

 white with an indistinct collar of black, though the latter character is 

 seen in but few specimens." 



Voice. — Davis gives, in his notes, the following impressions of the 

 song of Sharpe's seedeater: "The song most often heard here (or should 

 we say noticed?) is a loud, clear sweet svjeet sweet cheer cheer cheer. 

 There are a number of variations, but they are usually weaker and 

 hence not noticed as often. Variations are: Sweet sweet cheer cheer 

 cheer chee swee swee rrrrrrr, the end being a low, dry roll; sweet 

 sweet chip pip swee; sweet sweet sweet chip; chip chip chip suwee suwee; 

 che swee churrrrrrr. 



"The call is a soft, plaintive che, given at intervals of 5 to 12 seconds, 

 when disturbed." 



In Mexico, he heard songs that were quite different from those he 

 heard in Texas. 



Field marks. — Davis tells me: "Our birds do not show white collars 

 across the back of the neck nor black bands across the breast. These 

 so called typical marks of the adult male bird do not become conspic- 

 uously noticeable in the field until one gets down to central Vera Cruz, 

 as far as I have been able to observe. That, I presume, means that 

 such marks are seen mainly in the nominate form." 



In this connection, it is interesting to note that, apparently, neither 

 Lawrence (1889) nor Ridgway (1901) had seen any fully adult males 

 showing the above characters fully developed, from the region of the 

 lower Rio Grande. 



Lawrence said, when he gave it the subspecific name, sharpei, "none 

 of the numerous specimens received from Texas had the black band on 

 the throat, which exists in the full-plumaged male of S. morelleti." 

 And Ridgway, some years later, when he treated sharpei as a synonym 

 under his description of S. morelleti, wrote : "It is true specimens repre- 

 senting the fully adult male plumage described above are wanting in 

 the series from the State of Tamaulipas and the adjacent parts of Texas ; 

 but males from that district agree exactly in plumage with immature 

 males from more southern localities, and I beheve that fully adult 

 males have simply not yet been taken in the region designated." 



