Ridgway on a New Species of Peuccea. 
219 
be more than a seasonal variation. The Texas specimens, (now 
in the collection of the National Museum,) collected, respectively, 
April 10 and 29, and August 11, 1879, agree in every respect with 
those from Illinois, in the points which distinguish the latter from 
true aestivalis , and, being in very perfect plumage, leave no doubt 
in my mind as to their distinctness from that bird. Whether they 
are a different species, or merely a western form of cestivalis, the 
material at hand is not sufficient to determine ; but as, in our haste 
to degrade to the latter rank a Western bird more or less closely 
resembling P. aestivalis , two errors have already been made in 
the cases of P. cassini (Woodh.) and P. arizonce, Ridgw., — and es- 
pecially since a very wide area exists between the habitat of P. 
aestivalis and P. illinoensis in which no Peuccea is known to exist, — it 
may answer the present purpose quite as well to consider the latter 
in the light of a distinct species, until its intergradation with P. 
aestivalis be proven : at least a safe procedure in cases of the kind 
under consideration. In view of the facts above brought forward, 
I have concluded to characterize the Peuccea of the semi-prairie dis- 
tricts extending from Southern Illinois to Central Texas as a new 
species, and propose for it the specific name of illinoensis, this being 
the only form of the genus which, so far as known, occurs in the 
State of Illinois. Its characters are as follows : — 
Peuccea illinoensis,* Ridgw. — The Oak-woods Sparrow. 
Sp. ch. — Adult: Above sandy ferruginous, indistinctly streaked with 
light ash-gray, these streaks broadest on the back and middle line of the 
crown ; interscapulars sometimes marked with narrow central streaks of 
black. Outer surface of the wings light ferruginous, the greater coverts less 
reddish and edged with paler ; tertials dusky brown, bordered terminally 
with pale reddish ashy ; outer surface of the secondaries ferruginous. Tail 
uniform grayish-brown, the edges of the feathers more ashy. Sides of the 
head and neck, throat, jugulum, and entire sides, deep dingy-buff, this 
color most distinct across the breast, paler on the throat and chin ; a post- 
ocular streak of ferruginous along the upper edge of the auriculars ; sides 
of the neck streaked with ferruginous ; an indistinct dusky streak on each 
* PEUCCEA ILLINOENSIS. 
“ Peuccea cestivalis ,” Ridgway, Am. Nat., July, 1872, 430 (Wabash Co., 
Illinois); Ann. N. Y. Lye., X, Jan. 1874, 373 (do.) ; Pr. Boston Soc., XYI, Feb. 
18, 1874, 308, 326 (do.; summer resid.); Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, III, Oct. 1878, 
164 (“ extremely local and quite rare”). — Nelson, Bull. Essex Inst., IX, 1877, 
36, 49 (Mt. Carmel, Wabash Co., and Fox Prairie, Richland Co., Illinois). 
Peuccea illinoensis, Ridgway, MS. 
