220 Ridgway on a 'New Species of Peuccea. 
side of the throat, along; the lower edge of the malar region ; abdomen dull 
7 O O o 7 
white ; crissum creamy buff ; edge of the wing, from the carpal to the 
carpo-pbalangeal joint, bright yellow. Bill pale horn-color, the maxilla 
darker ; iris brown ; legs and feet pale brown. 
Total length, about 6.00 ; wing, 2 . 35 - 2.60 ( 2 . 51 ); tail, 2 . 55 - 2.80 ( 2 . 69 ); 
bill, from nostril to tip, . 30 -. 33 ; depth through base, . 27 -.30 (. 29 ) ; 
tarsus, .75 -.82 (. 77 ) ; middle toe, . 55 -.60 (. 59 ). 
Habitat. — Open oak woods, old fields, etc., of the semi-prairie region, 
from Central Texas to Southern Illinois. (Wabash Co., Illinois, Mus. 
R. Ridgway and E. W. Nelson ; Richland Co., Illinois, Mus. E. W. Nelson ; 
“Lower Cross Timbers” and “Post Oak Woods,” near Gainesville, Cook 
Co., Texas,* U. S. Nat. Mus.) 
Compared with P. aestivalis, in corresponding plumage, the differ- 
ences of coloration are at once apparent. The upper parts are much 
paler, and more “sandy ” in hue, and the black mesial streaks which 
in aestivalis mark all the feathers (except those of the nape and 
wings) are either entirely wanting, or confined to the interscapular 
region ; the breast and sides are very distinctly ochraceous-buff, 
these parts in aestivalis being dull buffy grayish. The proportions 
are very nearly the same in the two species, but illinoensis has a 
longer wing and thicker bill, the average of five specimens, com- 
pared with six of aestivalis, being 2.51 and 0.29 respectively, against 
2.40 and 0.26. P. arizonce is so different as scarcely to need com- 
parison, having, like aestivalis , the whole crown streaked with black ; 
the general hue of the upper parts more of a hair-brown, and the lower 
parts nearly uniform pale buffy grayish, the abdomen not conspicu- 
ously lighter. It is also larger, measuring, wing 2.60, and tail 2.85. 
The Peucaea illinoensis first came under my observation early in 
June, 1871, when several were seen and others' heard, about half- 
way between Mount Carmel and Olney, the former in Wabash, the 
latter in Richland County, Illinois. The first individual noticed sat 
upon a rail-fence by the road-side, and being very near, the first 
glance showed it to be a species I had never seen before. Before 
my gun could be got from the wagon, however, it dived into the 
weeds on the inside of the fence. We had proceeded but a short 
distance when a clear, loud, musical chant entirely new to me broke 
upon our ears, from the direction of some large dead trees standing- 
in a weedy field some distance from the road. The singer was soon 
discovered, perched on one of the lower limbs of a dead tree, some 
* Collected by Geo. H. Ragsdale, of Gainesville, Texas. 
