NOTES ON BIRDS OF KENTUCKY WETMORE 567 



ern race is found in three immature male birds taken on the summit 

 of Log Mountain, all being in molt from juvenal to first fall plumage. 

 In these the color of the flanks is very faintly paler than normal, 

 indicating some faint trace of the influence of the more southern form. 

 Specimens were obtained as follows: Waverly, May 7 and 9; Can- 

 ton, October 31 ; Madisonville, October 20 ; Roundhill, November 7 ; 

 Brandenburg, April 22 and 23 ; Ghent, October 11 ; English, October 

 12 ; Mount Vernon, October 3 ; Morehead, October 8 ; 2,800 feet eleva- 

 tion on Log Mountain, 7 miles west of Middlesboro, September 17; 

 2,300 feet elevation on Pine Mountain, near Whitesburg, June 29 

 (juvenile) ; and 4,000 and 4,100 feet elevation on Black Mountain, 

 near Lynch, June 21, 22, and 23. 



PASSERCULUS SANDWICHENSIS SAVANNA (Wilson) : Eastern Savannah Sparrow 



The material recently collected from the eastern part of the Mis- 

 sissippi drainage, including birds from West Virginia, Tennessee, 

 and Kentucky, has made it important to review the entire collection 

 from the eastern United States in the National Museum in accord- 

 ance with the new understanding of the geographic races of this in- 

 teresting bird offered in the excellent study published recently by 

 James L. Peters and Ludlow Griscom.^^ The work has involved 

 many days of careful consideration, and through a clearer under- 

 standing has changed a few of the identifications published in my 

 recent studies on birds from West Virginia and Tennessee. In the 

 present report therefore I have listed all this material again to bring 

 the record down to date. As Peters and Griscom have indicated, 

 identification of geographic races in this species, though highly in- 

 teresting, is much involved, and requires careful comparison of series 

 of specimens taken at the same season of the year. In the present 

 investigation the entire lot of birds was assorted by months so that 

 birds of exactly comparable stage of plumage could be examined 

 together. 



After going into the question with much care I am still of the 

 opinion expressed earlier ^^ that the Ipswich sparrow is specifically 

 distinct from the Savannah sparrows proper. 



In modern application of trinomial nomenclature the tendency 

 of some workers seems to be to replace the species concept with its 

 division into geographic races with the "formenkreis" concept, and 

 to use the latter as the unit in nomenclature, differentiating all its 

 included forms by use of a third term in the scientific name. While 



1'' Geographical variation in the Savanna sparrow. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. vol. 80, 

 Jan. 1938, pp. 445-478, 1 pi. 



IS Wetmore, A., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 86, 1939, pp. 236-237. 



