332 Oberholser, A New Agelaius. \ju\ v 



LJuljr 



A NEW AGELAIUS FROM CANADA. 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



When Mr. Ridgway described his Agelaius phosniceus fortis 1 

 he possessed comparatively few breeding birds from either the 

 United States or Canada. He therefore supposed that the breed- 

 ing range of his new form was restricted to Canada, and that 

 Agelaius phwniceus phwniceus extended westward over the Great 

 Plains of the United States to the base of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Considerable additional material, however, from Texas, Colorado, 

 and British America, shows conclusively that, in the breeding 

 season, Agelaius p. phosniceus reaches little, if any, beyond the 

 eastern border of the Great Plains; that Agelaius p. fortis occupies 

 the Plains from northwestern Texas to Colorado, Nebraska, and 

 Wyoming; while still another form occurs in the region to the 

 northward. The type of Agelaius phwniceus fortis, an autumn 

 female from Omaha, Nebraska, belongs clearly to the southern, 

 paler form; and as the Canadian race is thus without a name, it 

 may be called 



Agelaius phoeniceus arctolegus subsp. nov. 



Chars, subsp. — Similar to Agelaius phwniceus fortis, but female decidedly 

 darker below, the streaks more blackish and more extensive, about as 

 broad as the white interspaces; above more blackish. Male with wing 

 and tail averaging shorter; bill larger; and buff of wing-coverts somewhat 

 paler. 



Geographical distribution. — Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and , 

 northern Michigan, north to Keewatin, Athabaska, and Mackenzie; in 

 migration south to Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and probably Ohio. 



Description.— Type, adult female, No. 195233, U. S. N. M., Biological 

 Survey Collection; Fort Simpson, Mackenzie, May 26, 1904; Edward A. 

 Preble. Entire upper surface, including wings and tail, clove brown, with 

 narrow marginings of buff or whitish, these most conspicuous on crown, 

 nape, and wings, the back with a few rusty edgings; a rather ill-defined 

 superciliary stripe of buffy whitish mixed with brown; sides of head dull 

 buffy streaked with brown, and with a postocular and a rictal streak of 

 sepia; lores dusky; sides of neck like the nape, but more mixed with whit- 

 ish; chin salmon pink with a few faint flecks of dusky; throat white, 

 washed with salmon pink, and narrowly streaked with clove brown, 

 broadly so on each side; jugulum and breast white, broadly streaked with 



i Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., Ill, 1901, p. 153. 



