220 RiDGWAY 071 a New Species of Peucma. 



side of the throat, along the lower edge of the malar region ; abdomen dull 

 white ; crissum creamy buff ; edge of the wing, from the carpal to the 

 carpo-phalangeal joint, bright yellow. Bill pale horn-color, the maxilla 

 darker ; iris brown ; legs and feet pale brown. 



Total length, about 6^00 ; wing, 2.35 - 2.60 (2.51) ; tail, 2.55-2.80 (2.69) ; 

 bill, from nostril to tip, .30 -.33; depth through base, .27 -.30 (.29); 

 tarsus, .75 -.82 (.77) ; middle toe, .55 -.60 (.59). 



Habitat. — Open oak woods, old fields, etc., of the semi-prairie region, 

 from Central Texas to Southern Illinois. (Wabash Co., Illinois, Mus. 

 R. Ridgway and E. W. Nelson ; Richland Co., Illinois, Mus. E. W. Nelson ; 

 " Lower Cross Timbers " and " Post Oak Woods," near Gainesville, Cook 

 Co., Texas,* U. S. Nat. Mus.) 



Compared with P. aestivalis, in corresponding plumage, the differ- 

 ences of coloration are at once apparent. The upper parts are much 

 paler, and more "sandy " in hue, and the black mesial streaks which 

 in (jestivalis mark all the feathers (except those of the nape and 

 wings) are either entirely wanting, or confined to the interscapular 

 region ; the breast and sides are very distinctly ochraceous-buf}', 

 these parts in cestivalis being dull buffy grayish. The proportions 

 are very nearly the same in the two species, but illinoensis has a 

 longer wing and thicker bill, the average of five specimens, com- 

 pared with sis. of (jestivalis, being 2.51 and 0.29 respectively, against 

 2.40 and 0.26. P. arizouce is so different as scarcely to need com- 

 parison, having, like cestivalis, the whole crown streaked with black ; 

 the general hue of the upper parts more of a hair-brown, and the lower 

 parts nearly uniform pale buffy grayish, the abdomen not conspicu- 

 ously lighter. It is also larger, measuring, wing 2.60, and tail 2.85. 

 The Peucoea illinoensis first came under my observation early in 

 June, 1871, when several were seen and others heard, about half- 

 ,way between Mount Carmel and Olney, the former in Wabash, the 

 latter in Richland County, Illinois. The first individual noticed sat 

 upon a rail-fence by the road-side, and being very near, the first 

 glance showed it to be a species I had never seen before. Before 

 my gun could be got from the wagon, however, it dived into the 

 weeds on the inside of the fence. We had proceeded but a short 

 distance when a clear, loud, musical chant entirely new to me broke 

 upon our ears, from the direction of some large dead trees standing 

 in a weedy field some distance from the road. The singer was soon 

 discovered, perched on one of the lower limbs of a dead tree, some 



* Collected by Geo. H. Ragsdale, of Gainesville, Texas. 



