THE AUK : 
A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
vol. x. July, 1893. no. 3. 
A HYBRID SPARROW ( ZONOTRICHIA ALBI- 
COLLIS + JUNCO H TEMALIS) . 
BY WITMER STONE. 
The rarity of hybrid birds in a state of nature and the great 
interest which they possess, not only for ornithologists, but also 
for naturalists in general, renders it desirable that such hybrid 
specimens as have been secured should be well described and 
figured. With this object in view the Editors of ‘The Auk’ have 
had the accompanying plate prepared, illustrating the hitherto 
unfigured hybrid between the White-throated Sparrow and Slate- 
colored Junco. The original painting from which the plate was 
made is the work of Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, who is well 
known for his many beautiful illustrations of bird life. The bird 
here represented was secured by Mr. William L. Baily near 
Haverford College, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on 
December 12, 1882, and was first described in the Bulletin of the 
Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. VIII, p. by Mr. Charles 
H. Townsend. 
Mr. Baily has recently had the specimen mounted, and has 
presented it to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 
where it is now exhibited in the collection of local birds which is 
being formed for the museum by the Delaware Valley Ornitho- 
logical Club. 
This bird, which is a male, combines the characters of Zono- 
trichia albicollis and Junco hye?nalis in nearly equal propor- 
tions. The upper surface and wings have the general aspect of the 
Zonotrichia , but the black shaft stripes are narrower and the 
rufous is more or less suffused with slaty, this shade predomi- 
nating on the head, where the central white stripe is entirely 
obliterated and the black stripes considerably broken. Beneath 
the pattern of coloration is that of the Zonotrichia , but the breast 
and sides are of a darker slaty hue. The superciliary stripe is 
reduced to a white spot behind the nostril and there is a faint 
dusky maxillary stripe. The outermost tail feathers have the 
terminal two thirds white, and there is a white terminal spot on 
the inner web of the next pair. 
Auk X.JuIt, 1883 p. 213-14 
