8PIZELLA.. 377 



1. Spizella socialis. 



Fringilla socialis, Wils. Am. Orn. ii. p. 127, t. 16. f . 5 ' ; Sw. Phil. Mag. n. ser. i. p. 435 '. 

 Spizella socialis, Scl. P. Z. S. 1858, p. 304'; 1859, p. 365^; 1864, p. 174'; Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 



p. 489 '; Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soe. N. H. i. p. 553^ ; Baird, Brew.,& Ridgw. N. Am. B. 



ii. p. 7'; Gundl. Av. Cab. p. 90"; Lawr. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mas. no. 4, p. 31"; Sennett, 



Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv. iv. p. 19"; v. p. 391 '^ 

 Spinites socialis, Cab. Mus. Hein. i. p. 133". 



Spizella socialis var. arizonce, Lawr. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 4, p. 31 ". 

 Spizella domestica. Cones, Key N. Am. B. ed. 3, p. 380 " (ex Bartram). 



Supra, cervice postica, dorso medio et scapularibus rufo-brunneis nigro late striatis, uropygio cinereo, capitp 

 summo castaneo, fronte rigra macula mediana cinerea, stria a naribus supra oculos ad nucbam ducta alba, 

 loris et stria post oculos nigris, capitis laterum reliquo et corpore subtus ciuereis, gula et abdomine albi- 

 cantibus ; alis et cauda fusco-nigricantibus, illis pallide fusco limbatis et albido bifasciatis ; rostro tem- 

 pore sestivo nigro, pedibus carneis. Long, tota 5-0, alae 2-9, caudae 2-3, rostri a rictu 0-5, tarsi 0-6. 

 (Descr. exempl. ex Jalapa, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 



Av.jun. capita summo sicut dorso striato baud castaneo. 



Av.juv. subtus quoque striafcus. 



Hab. North America, eastern portions, Texas ^ ^^ ^^. — Mexico, Eeal del Monte, Temi- 

 scaltepec (Bullock ^), Ciudad in Durango (Forrer), valley of Mexico ( WJiite ^), 

 temperate region of Vera Cruz (Sumichrast"^), Jalapa (de Oca^), La Parada 

 (Boucard ^), Guichicovi i^, Gineta Mountains i" (Sumichrast). — Cuba ^- 



A widely ranging species, resident in Mexico according to Sumichrast, who says that 

 it remains throughout the year in the temperate region of Vera Cruz, where it breeds 

 as freely as in the United States '''. 



A separate race has been recognized by American authors as inhabiting Arizona, 

 under the name of Spizella socialis arizonce. This bird we should expect to find in 

 the Sierras of Durango and in Western Mexico, but we fail to detect any differences 

 between our examples from those parts and others from the Eastern States. Moreover, 

 a specimen from Arizona seems to us to be the same in every way, having the chestnut 

 head of the true S. socialis. Our series, however, of this western race is hardly good 

 enough to enable us to speak very positively, but, so far as it goes, tends to show that 

 S. socialis arizonce will prove inseparable from S. socialis itself. The name was based 

 upon young birds, the striated heads of which had not given place to the chestnut 

 crown of the adult. 



Though apparently a common species in Mexico, next to nothing has been written 

 of S. socialis beyond a record of the localities where it' has been observed, and these 

 extend over a large portion of that country, as far south as the mountains of the 

 isthmus of Tehuantepec, where, according to Mr. Lawrence, specimens of both the 

 common and the Arizona race were obtained by Sumichrast in the months of September 

 and January. 



In Cuba it has only once been noticed, Dr. Gundlach having shot a female specimen 

 BIOL. CENTK.-AMER., Aves, Vol. L, Junc 1886. 48 



