26 Allen, The Rio Grande Seedeater. [f&n. 



THE RIO GRANDE SEEDEATER, ITS STATUS AND 

 TECHNICAL HISTORY. 



In 1851, Mr. George N. Lawrence (Ann. N. Y. Lye. Nat. Hist., 

 V, 1852, p. 123) described what was evidently a male specimen of 

 the Rio Grande Seedeater, "procured in [Brownsville] Texas by 

 Capt. J. P. McCown, U. S. A.," 1 but instead of giving it a new 

 name referred it to Spermophila albigularis Spix, from the province 

 of Bahia, Brazil. Four years later Dr. P. L. Sclater (P. Z. S., 1856, 

 p. 302) provisionally referred Mr. Lawrence's S. albigularis to S. 

 morelleti Bonap., based on specimens from Guatemala. This 

 determination appears to have passed unchallenged till 1888, when 

 Dr. R. B. Sharpe (Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., XII, 1888, p. 124) identi- 

 fied the Rio Grande bird as S. parva Lawr., and gave the range of 

 S. morelleti as from "Yucatan to Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa 

 Rica," referring morelleti of authors, from Mexico and Texas, to 

 Lawrence's parva. 



In the meantime Mr. Lawrence had not felt convinced that 

 Sclater's decision was correct, and in 1889 (Auk, VI, Jan. 1889, pp. 

 53, 54) summarized the history of the case, pointing out the differ- 

 ences separating the Rio Grande bird from both S. parva and S. 

 morelleti, and naming the Rio Grande bird in honor of Dr. Sharpe, 

 "as he is," said Mr. Lawrence (/. c, p. 54) "the only one who has 

 recognized it as being distinct from S. morelleti Bp." Mr. Law- 

 rence called it Sporophila morelleti sharpei, and under this designa- 

 tion the Rio Grande bird was entered in the second edition of the 

 A. O. U. Check-List. It was correctly recognized under this name 

 until its status was again challenged by Mr. Ridgway, who, in his 

 'Birds of North and Middle America' (Part I, 1901, p. 575), con- 

 sidered it indistinguishable from Sporophila morelleti. In com- 

 menting on the case (/. c, footnote) he says: 



1 This interesting specimen, a male, is No. 41296, in the collection of the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, from the Lawrence Collection. On the original 

 label is inscribed in Mr. Lawrence's handwriting, "Spermophila, believed to be a 

 new species." Mr. Lawrence's label, written some time later, has "Spermophila. 

 moreleti Pucheran, juv. <J\ Texas," and, on the reverse side, "Brownsville, J. P. 

 McCown." 



