2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 95 



gined indistinctly with light olive-gray ; below white with the throat im- 

 maculate ; a streak on either side of the throat dull black with an edg- 

 ing above of russet ; feathers in center of breast with heavy black apical 

 spots bordered with russet, forming a distinct dark central spot ; on 

 either side smaller triangular points of black, bordered more or less 

 with russet, becoming longer, mixed with more brown, on sides and 

 flanks ; under tail coverts with centers bister margined with snuff- 

 brown ; tibiae cinnamon-brown. 



Measurements (of type). — Wing 66.4, tail 66.6, culmen from base 

 13.2, tarsus 21.6 mm. 



Remarks.- — For a number of years I have been examining eastern 

 song sparrows with much interest, and for some time it has been 

 evident that the breeding birds of the Alleghany Mountain region 

 constituted a darker race than typical melodia. For a time I have 

 followed Todd ^ in calling this darker race Melospiza melodia heata 

 Bangs,^ a name that Todd has applied to the song sparrows of the 

 region west of and including the Appalachian Mountains. 



Recently through the assistance of Dr. Thomas Barbour and James 

 L. Peters, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, it has been my 

 privilege to examine the type of heata to find that it is not the so-called 

 Mississippi song sparrow but is similar to the birds of the northern 

 plains region. It is identified as Melospiaa m. jiiddi Bishop, of which 

 heata becomes a synonym. The type agrees with juddi in the dis- 

 tinctly light gray cast of the upper surface, with prominent dark mark- 

 ings, though it is slightly darker than a series of that race from the 

 typical area in North Dakota. As one goes farther north, into Canada, 

 specimens that must be called jiiddi become slightly darker, and also 

 among these is often found the large, heavy bill that Bangs noted in 

 describing his type. 



It will be recalled that heata was based originally on two specimens 

 in the Ih-yant collection taken at Enterprise, Fla., on April 17, 1859. 

 The southeastward line of migration for many birds of central Canada 

 is now well established, so that the presence of a bird from this area 

 in Florida is not to be considered unusual. The late date also fits in 

 this same picture, for though song sj^arrows may be nesting in the 

 central United States in April, the breeding grounds of individuals 

 migrant from the northern part of the range of juddi may still be 

 closed by winter conditions, so that such birds may linger in the south. 



' Auk, 1930, p. 257. 



^Melospiza melodia bcata Bangs, Proc. New England Zool. Club, vol. 6, 

 June 5, 1912, p. 87 (Enterprise, Fla.). 



