A NEW RACE OF THE SONG SPARROW FROM THE 

 APPALACHIAN REGION 



By ALEXANDER WETMORE 

 Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution 



For some time the United States National Museum has been accu- 

 mulating song sparrows to determine the distribution of the races of 

 this bird in the middle section of the eastern United States, with 

 results of considerable interest. In collections made during the past 

 field season by a party financed by the Smithsonian Institution impor- 

 tant specimens were obtained in West Virginia that indicate a hitherto 

 unrecognized race. The new form may be known as 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA EUPHONIA, n. subsp. 



Characters. — Similar to Melospiza mclodia melodia (Wilson) ' but 

 distinctly darker above, being grayer, with the dark markings gen- 

 erally more distinct ; sides of head grayer, less buffy or brown ; tail 

 averaging darker. 



Description.— Ty^^t, U.S.N.M. no. 348887, ^ adult, collected in 

 the Cranberry Glades, Pocahontas County, W. Va., at an elevation of 

 3,300 feet, June 8, 1936, by W. M. Perrygo and C. Lingebach, origi- 

 nal no. 393, in somewhat worn breeding dress. Sides of crown 

 chestnut-brown, with the centers of the feathers dull black, and an 

 indistinct line of light grayish olive down the center ; superciliary 

 stripe white washed with pale olive-gray ; ear-coverts smoke-gray with 

 a slightly bufl:"y tinge, streak behind eye and another below ear-coverts 

 between auburn and chestnut-brown ; feathers of back dull russet with 

 heavy black spots at tips, and an indistinct edging of pale olive-gray ; 

 rump feathers and upper tail coverts snuflf-brown with indistinct 

 blackish spots at tips ; tail (considerably worn) fuscous black, edged 

 with snufif-brown, the edging broad at base ; lesser and middle wing- 

 coverts dull russet ; greater wing-coverts cinnamon-brown on exposed 

 portions, blackish centrally ; median and greater coverts with indis- 

 tinct edgings of pale olive-gray ; exposed surface of tertials black, 

 edged with cinnamon-brown ; primaries and secondaries fuscous black, 

 the secondaries edged with cinnamon-brown, and the primaries mar- 



^ Fringilla melodia Wilson, Amer. Orn., vol. 2, 1810, p. 125, pi. 16, fig. 4. 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 95, No. 17 



