1920] Swarth: Revision of Avian Genus Passerella 153 



Specimens examined. — 98 (see list, pp. 200-201). 



Distinguishing characters. — Within the Schistacea group (see p. 

 89), schistacea is distinguished from all the other subspecies save 

 canescens by its diminutive bill (see figs. E, F, and table 4). From 

 canescens, schistacea is distinguished by its more slender pointed, less 

 stubby bill, and hy color, canescens being more grayish in general 

 coloration, schistacea more brownish. In an average example of 

 schistacea in fresh fall plumage (no. 23203, Mus. Vert. Zool., Blue 

 Canon, Placer County, California, August 31, 1912) the upper parts 

 generally are overlaid with brownish, the general effect being not far 

 from sepia, while the ventral spots, each one blackish centrally, are 

 laterally of a richer brown than the back. By April much of the 

 brownish tinge has disappeared through wear and fading, but direct 

 comparison of specimens of scMstac&a and canescens shows an appre- 

 ciable difference, still, in this regard. In juvenal plumage schistacea 

 exhibits throughout a brownish suffusion, just such as is seen in the 

 later stages. 



Remarks. — The type specimen of Passerella schistacea Baird was 

 collected upon the expedition headed by Lieut. Francis T. Bryan in 

 exploration of a road from Fort Riley to Bridger's Pass in the sum- 

 mer of 1856. The locality of capture of the specimen as entered upon 

 the label is simply "Platte river, K. T.," the date, July 19, 1856. 

 The itinerary of Lieut. Bryan's party appears in a report contained 

 among "The executive documents printed by order of the senate of 

 the United States" (1858, pp. 455-457) ; and there is a map showing 

 the route the party traversed, in the Annual Report of the Wlieeler 

 Survey (1876, opp. p. 36). In the itinerary, unfortunately, a detailed 

 account of day to day travel begins only on July 23, but by comparison 

 of the less detailed statements just preceding this date, with the table 

 of distances (pp. 485, 486) a fairly accurate idea may be reached of 

 the whereabouts of the party on July 19. On that day, from the 

 above data, they would seem to have been traveling along the South 

 Platte River, probably between Laramie Crossing and Goodale's 

 Crossing, approximately two hundred miles west of Fort Kearny. 

 This would fix the type locality of schistacea at about the point given 

 by Cooke (1897, p. 107), upon the authority of Dr. T. S. Palmer, and 

 as repeated by the A. 0. U. Check-List (1910, p. 277). The latter 

 authority gives it as " South Fork of Platte River, about 25 miles east 

 of northeastern comer of Colorado, Nebraska." I myself, after 

 studying the documents above mentioned, did not feel able to fix the 

 locality quite so exactly, but it is, apparently, in Nebraska and on 

 the South Platte River, not many miles east of the Nebraska-Colorado 

 boundary line. It should be stated that on the map above cited the 



