Y ° 1 i907 :iV ] Allen, The Rio Grande Seedeater. 27 



"I find myself unable to subdivide this species satisfactorily. 

 It is true specimens representing the fully adult male plumage 

 described above are wanting in the series from the State of Tamauli- 

 pas and the adjacent parts of Texas: but males from that district 

 agree exactly in plumage with immature males from more southern 

 localities, and I believe that fully adult males have simply not yet 

 been taken in the region designated." 



On the basis of this "belief" S. m. sharped was relegated to syn- 

 onymy. The statement that "specimens representing the fully 

 adult male plumage "of S. morelleti are wanting from the Rio 

 Grande region is quite true, as is also the statement that males from 

 this district "agree exactly [or nearly] in plumage with immature 

 males from more southern localities." Although the "belief" 

 based on these facts proves to have been unwarranted, the A. O. U. 

 Committee, on the basis of the very inadequate material in the U. S. 

 National Museum, gave this opinion its endorsement, and in the 

 Twelfth Check-List Supplement (Auk, XX, July, 1903, p. 353) 

 eliminated the subspecies sharpei. 



Having had occasion recently to examine certain other Texas 

 birds, the case of the Rio Grande Sporophila came also under 

 notice, with the result that the fine series of these birds in the 

 American Museum of Natural History (formerly in the Sennett 

 Collection) furnishes indubitable evidence that the adult males 

 of the Texas form do not acquire the broad black pectoral collar 

 and the black back of typical morelleti, and that in consequence of 

 their resemblance to immature males of true morelleti have been 

 considered as also immature. Many scores of Texas specimens of 

 Sporophila have found their way into collections, and it is surprising 

 that the absence of males with a glossy black back and a broad 

 black pectoral collar has not suggested the real solution of the case. 



The American Museum of Natural History contains a series of 62 

 specimens of the Sporophila morelleti group. Of these 26 — 16 males 

 and 10 females — are from Texas (8 from Brownsville, 17 from 

 Lomita Ranch, 1 from Rio Grande City); 11 (10 males, 1 female) 

 from Nuevo Leon (Montemorelos and Monterey) ; 6 males and 

 2 females from Tampico, Tamaulipas; 18 (14 males, 4 females) 

 from southern Vera Cruz, Honduras, Yucatan, Guatemala, and 

 Costa Rica. They are separable into three series: (1) Texas and 



