4 
564 ZOOLOGY. 
regions of Minnesota and Wisconsin, I think he would see the 
Hypnum gradually give place to Sphagnum in the marshes, and 
the marsh Ericaceze appear with the last named moss. 
In short, lime seems to be an uncongenial element i in the habi- 
tat of both Sphagnum and most if not all ericaceous plants, but 
is not uncongenial to Hypnum and grass. Therefore the abun- 
dant presence of lime will not necessarily prevent the accumula- 
tion of peat.—C. A. WHITE. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Cenrronyx ‘‘ocHrocepHatus” Aiken.—This nominal species, 
described by Mr. Aiken in a recent number of the NATURALIST,* is 
neither entitled to specific rank, nor even to a name as a well 
marked variety or race. This deduction I have adopted after a 
careful examination of the two specimens of it collected—one, the 
type, in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the other in 
the collection of Mr. R. Ridgway — and their comparison with 
Audubon’s type of C. Bairdii. The color differs in the two 
types very appreciably, indeed as much and even more, than in 
many well established and closely allied species: but while the 
specific distinctness of these is sustained by large series of speci- 
mens in which there is scarcely any gradation, or a too close ap- 
proximation in coloration, the validity of the C. “ochrocephalus” 
is entirely overthrown by the second specimen obtained, which is 
exactly intermediate in color, as it is in season of collection, be- 
tween the first and the single specimen of C. Bairdii. The emar- 
ginate tail of Aiken’s sparrow, as compared with the doubly 
rounded one of Baird’s, has little weight as a character. The 
C. Bairdii undoubtedly possessed this feature, as is apparent 
from the appearance of the plumage, which everywhere exhibits a 
worn and bleached surface: and in some places the vanes at the 
tips of the feathers are worn quite off from the shafts; this is es- 
pecially noticeable in the rectrices. The most cogent reason for 
considering it distinct from C. Bairdii lies in the differences in 
their relative size and proportions—C. “ochrocephalus” being Con- 
siderably the larger; but, even in this, it does not exceed the 
proportion of variation which should be recognized as occurrent 
in a species. 
*Vol, vii, p. 237, 1873. 
