27 2 Dwight, The Sharp-tailed Sparrows. |~Oct 



a name that still survives. That it is applicable to true caudacutus, 

 and not to either of the subspecies, becomes most probable when 

 we read Gmelin's description in conjunction with Latham's plate, 

 both based on the same material, a specimen from New York in 

 Mrs. Blackburn's collection. We read, "pectus, femora et crissum 

 pallide flavescentia, maculis fuscis," a statement which seems to 

 indicate the paler buff and distinct streaking of caudacutus as 

 compared with nelsoni, and other parts of the description contrib- 

 ute to show that pale subvirgatus was not the bird in hand,— these 

 being the three forms to which the old description might apply. 



Wilson, apparently unaware of previous recognition, figured and 

 described an undoubted caudacutus, which he named Fringilla 

 caudacuta, Sharp-tailed Finch (Wilson, Araer. Orn., IV, 1811, 70, 

 pi. xxxiv, f. 3), and Audubon also figured and accurately described 

 the species (Audubon, Orn. Biog., II, 1834, 281, pi. cxlix, V, 

 1839, 499' Birds Am. III. 3, 1S41, 108, pi. clxxliv,). It is 

 again poorly figured by DeKay (Zool. N. Y., pt. ii, 1844, 164, 

 pi. 67, f. 154) and from him received the curious name of ' Quail- 

 head,' so called from a fancied resemblance to the markings of 

 the Bob-white. 



The name caudacutus, once applied, seems to have been adopted 

 by all later writers, save Nuttall (who saw fit to call the bird 

 Fringilla littoral is for reasons best known to himself), and conse- 

 quently the bird has not been burdened with the multiplicity of 

 names that so often fall to the lot of early described species. 



In 1875 a smaller, brighter colored race was separated under 

 the name nelsoni (Allen, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H., xvii, March, 

 1875, 293) on the evidence of a number of specimens obtained 

 by Mr. Edward W. Nelson and others on the Calumet Marshes 

 near Ainsworth, Illinois, in September and October, 1874. This 

 has proved to be the inland representative of its strictly littoral 

 relatives. 



In 18S7 I described a race from the marshes of New Brunswick, 

 Canada (Dwight, Auk, IV, July 1887, 233) to which I applied the 

 name subvirgatus. It is a comparatively pale race that seems to 

 have closer affinities with nelsoui than with its nearer breeding 

 neighbor caudacutus, and its recognition raises interesting ques- 

 tions of distribution yet to be solved. 



