86 Howell, A New Seaside Sparrow. [j an 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SEASIDE SPARROW FROM 



FLORIDA. 



BY ARTHUR H. HOWELL. 



One of the surprising results of a short collecting trip made by 

 the writer to Cape Sable, Florida, in February, 1918, was the 

 discovery of a distinct new species of Seaside Sparrow. This may 

 be described as follows: 



Thryospiza 1 mirabilis sp. nov. 

 Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow. 



Type, No. 261,542, U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Collec- 

 tion; d" adult, Cape Sable, Florida, February 18, 1918; collected by A. H. 

 Howell; original number, 1599. 



Specific characters. — Most like Thryospiza maritima sennetti, but smaller, 

 the upper-parts brighter and more greenish, the edgings on the tertials 

 and scapulars more whitish; under-parts much more extensively whitish 

 and the streaks much darker and more sharply defined. 



Description of type. — Pileum mouse gray, streaked (chiefly in two lateral 

 stripes) with chsetura black, washed on occiput with yellowish olive; hind 

 neck pale yellowish olive, this color forming a rather conspicuous, broad, 

 transverse band; interscapular region and rump olive (slightly paler than 

 deep olive of Ridgway), streaked with fuscous, the scapulars broadly edged 

 with white; upper tail coverts olive, with a broad median streak of fuscous 

 and tipped with pale grayish; rectrices fuscous along vanes, mouse gray 

 on inner webs, indistinctly barred with fuscous; outer webs citrine drab; 

 tips margined with white. Supraloral region empire yellow; superciliary 

 stripe pyrite yellow, bordered above with grayish and shading posteriorly 

 to cream buff; lores, suborbital region, and auriculars neutral gray, mixed 

 with whitish; postocular streak and short streaks on side of neck chsetura 

 black; submalar stripe buffy white, bordered above and below with chsetura 

 black. Primaries and secondaries fuscous, edged with olive; tertials dark 

 fuscous, margined with buffy white; edge of wing empire yellow; lesser 

 coverts pyrite yellow; middle coverts fuscous-black, edged with g^dsh 

 olive; greater coverts fuscous, shaded with ohve, and bordered on outer 



i For the use of this name in place of Passerherbulus for the Seaside Sparrows see Ober- 

 holser, Auk, April, 1918, p. 210. 



