972 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 paex 2 



Aretas A. Saunders (1951) has this comment on the song: "Farther 

 south, chiefly in Florida, the bird is sub-specifically distinct, and 

 known as the Pine-woods Sparrow. Its song is essentially the same 

 [as A. a. bachmani], but it is my impression that the song there is not 

 quite so rich and fine in quality as that of the more northern form." 



H. S. Peters (1936) lists a louse (Ricinus sp.) as an ectoparasite 

 found on some specimens of this sparrow taken in Florida. 



In winter, this race withdraws from the northern part of its breeding 

 range and is then found from extreme southern Georgia through almost 

 the whole of the Florida peninsula. 



Distribution 



Range. — South Carolina to Florida. 



Breeding range. — The pine-woods Bachman's sparrow breeds on 

 the coastal plain of southern South CaroUna (Allendale, Jasper, and 

 Beaufort counties), southeastern Georgia (Savannah, Folks ton), and 

 peninsular Florida (south to Fort Pierce and Immokalee) . 



Winter range. — Winters chiefly in peninsular Florida; casually 

 north to Grady County, Georgia. 



AIMOPHILA AESTIVALIS ILLINOENSIS (Ridgway) 



Illinois Bachman's Sparrow 

 Contributed by Francis Marion Weston 



Habits 



Robert Ridgway (1879) described the oak-woods sparrow {Peucaea 

 illinoensis) from specimens he collected at Mount Carmel, lU. He 

 considered it a distinct species because "a very wide area exists 

 between the habitat of P. aestivalis and P. illinoensis in which no 

 Peucaea is known to exist * * *." He knew that his new sparrow 

 ranged southward into central Texas, but certainly he did not know 

 that its winter range extended as far east as southern Mississippi, 

 where it met that of A. a. bachmani. Nor could he foresee, of course, 

 the "invasion" of Bachman's sparrow 20 years later into southern 

 Ohio, where it occupies territory almost contiguous to that of illinoen- 

 sis. 



It was not until may years later that the A.O.U. Committee on 

 Nomenclature (1944) accepted Ridgway's illinoensis as a race of A. 

 aestivalis, giving it the name that appears at the head of this account. 



Robert Ridgway, in his description, states of this race that "the 

 upper parts are much paler and more 'sandy' in hue, and the black 

 mesial streaks which in aestivalis mark all the feathers (except those 

 of the nape and wings) are either entirely wanting or confined to the 



