440 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.84 



MELOSPIZA GEORGIANA (Latham) 



Swamp Sparrow 



Found during the migration period near Huntington, May 2; 

 Barboursville, October 26; Mercers Bottom, October 30 and November 

 2; Ashton, October 31; 2,900 feet elevation on Flat Top Mountain, 

 near Ghent, October 14; 2,000 feet elevation on Clierr}^ Pond Moun- 

 tain, near Arnett, October 23; Orgas, October 24; 3,800 feet elevation 

 on Cheat Mountain, 3 miles west of Cheat Bridge, September 25; 

 and 3,000 feet elevation on Williams River, October 3. 



In the Cranberry Glades specimens were obtained on June 11 and 

 12. One was taken on Middle Mountain, 12 miles northeast of 

 Durbin, on June 29, and a young bird recently from the nest was 

 secured at Yokum Knob on Middle Mountain on July 4. 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA MELODIA (Wilson) 



Eastern Song Sparrow 



That the true eastern song sparrow nests in extreme eastern West 

 Virginia is indicated by a male in worn breeding plumage in the 

 National Museum taken at Halltown on August 1, 1898. In migra- 

 tion this form may occur casually elsewhere, as a male collected by 

 Perrygo and Lingebach at 2,000 feet elevation on Cherry Pond 

 Mountain near Arnett on October 23, 1936, has the brighter color of 

 the eastern race. 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA EUPHONIA Wetmore 



Mississippi Song Sparrow 



For several years I have examined song sparrows from localities in 

 the eastern United • States to work out the ranges of the geographic 

 races in that area. It has been evident that breeding birds from the 

 Allegheny Mountain section were darker in color than the typical 

 eastern song sparrow (Melospiza melodia melodia), and for a time I 

 followed W. E. Clyde Todd in calling this darker mountain race 

 Melospiza melodia beata Bangs. '^ This name has become current for 

 the bird of the eastern Mississippi Valley drainage in general, as it 

 was adopted in the fourth edition of the A. O. U. Check-list of North 

 American birds in 1931. 



Last year, however, I had opportunity to see the type specimen of 

 beata in the collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and 

 I found that it was a specimen of the Dakota song sparrow (Melospiza 

 melodia juddi Bishop), migrant to winter quarters in Florida. As beata 

 Bangs thus became a synonym of juddi, I described the breeding bird 



ii Melospiza melodia beata Bangs, Proc. New Zealand Zool. Club, vol. 6, June 5, 1912, p. 87 (Enterprise, 

 Fla.). 



