[4,253 
Freprvuary 6, 1918 Vou. VI, pr. 77-79 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NEW ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL CLUB 
AN UNDESCRIBED RACE OF HENSLOW’S SPARROW. 
BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 
In connection with some notes relating to a western form of 
Henslow’s sparrow, published upwards of twenty years ago 
(Auk, VIII, 1891, pp. 145-146), I remarked incidentally that 
the birds which ‘‘ breed near Washington, D. C., . . . probably 
most nearly represent true henslowii.’’ This statement was in- 
correct and hence unfortunate. It must have been made with- 
out much if any thought as to where the type of the species 
originated. Such oversight may seem inexcusable now, but was 
not then generally so regarded by ornithologists, many of whom, 
indeed, were accustomed to consider typical the birds with 
which they happened to be most familiar or best supplied. 
The Henslow’s sparrow figured and described by Audubon, 
was obtained, he tells us, “‘ opposite Cincinnati, in the State of 
Kentucky, in the year 1820” (Orn. Biog., Vol. I, 1831, p. 360). 
His plate and description of this specimen indicate that it was 
not unlike others since obtained elsewhere in the Ohio River 
Valley, mostly in Illinois and Indiana. Presumably all such 
birds inhabiting that region in summer are essentially typical of 
the species which Audubon discovered and named. 
It is otherwise with those breeding east of the Alleghanies — 
at least in Virginia and New England. They represent a form 
