°i906 J Wayne, South Carolina Birds. 65 



these; erratic birds. The first were observed on December 12, 

 1896, and many remained until the middle of March, 1897. Be- 

 tween these dates, many of the birds taken seemed to be in a 

 state of perpetual moult. These birds were feeding upon the 

 seeds of the sweet gum (Liquidamber styraciflua), and short- 

 leaf pine (Pirms mitis). 



Passerculus princeps. Ipswich Sparrow. — Dr. Dwight states 

 in his admirable monograph of this sparrow, p. 22, that "the 

 yellow over the eye, acquired late in the spring moult, is equally 

 intense in both sexes, although the individual intensity is variable," 

 and in the "adult in autumn the superciliary line is ashy white or 

 only faintly tinged with yellow." I have a specimen of this Spar- 

 row, No. 4413, 9 ad., February 3, 1903, Cape Romain, S. C. 

 (D. L. Taylor, collector), which has the superciliary stripe very 

 strongly marked with canary yellow. The two central rect rices 

 were being renewed, but they had not acquired their maximum 

 length. 



Ammodramus nelsoni subvirgatus. Acadian Sparrow. — 

 The Acadian Sparrow is only absent on the coast from June 5 

 until October 10. These birds arrive in full autumnal plumage, 

 but towards the last of October they begin to moult the feathers 

 about the head and throat. This moult also occurs at or about 

 the same time in all the Am mod rami that inhabit the salt marshes, 

 viz: — Ammodramus caudacutus, A. nelsoni, A. maritimus, A. m. 

 fisheri, A. m. macgillivraii. There is a complete moult in the 

 spring of the above except A. m. fisheri and A. m. macgillirraii. ' 

 The primaries, secondaries, and rectrices are also renewed. Audu- 

 bon was well acquainted with this subspecies. In Vol. Ill, p. 109, 

 of his 'Birds of America' he says: "Some shot on the 11th of 

 December, in the neighborhood of Charleston in South Carolina, 

 were so pale as almost to tempt one to pronounce them of a differ- 

 ent species." A "subspecies," however, was unknown, in those 

 days! D,r. Dwight's description of the song in Mr. Chapman's 

 ' Birds of Eastern North America ' is as perfect an imitation as 

 one could write. 



Ammodramus maritimus macgillivraii. Macgillivray's Sea- 

 side Sparrow. — The type locality of this form is considered by 

 all ornithologists to be Charleston (or vicinity), South Carolina. 



