272 
Dwight, The Sharp-tailed Sparrows. 
r Auk 
L Oct. 
a name that still survives. That it is applicable to true caudacutus , 
and not to either of the subspecies, becomes most probable when 
we read Gmelin’s description in conjunction with Latham’s plate, 
both based on the same material, a specimen from New York in 
Mrs. Blackburn’s collection. We read, “ pectus, femora et crissum 
pallide flavescentia, maculis fuscis,” a statement which seems to 
indicate the paler buff and distinct streaking of caudacutus as 
compared with nelsoni , and other parts of the description contrib- 
ute to show that pale subvirgatus was not the bird in hand, — these 
being the three forms to which the old description might apply. 
Wilson, apparently unaware of previous recognition, figured and 
described an undoubted caudacutus , which he named Fringilla 
caudacuta, Sharp-tailed Finch (Wilson, Amer. Orn., IV, 18 n, 70, 
pi. xxxiv, f. 3), and Audubon also -figured and accurately described 
the species (Audubon, Orn. Biog., II, 1834, 281, pi. cxlix, V, 
1839,' 499; Birds Am. III. 3, 1841, 108, pi. clxxliv,). It is 
again poorly figured by DeKay (Zool. N. Y., pt. ii, 1844, 164, 
pi. 67, f. 154) and from him received the curious name of ‘ Quail- 
head,’ so called from a fancied resemblance to the markings of 
the Bob-white. 
The name caudacutus , once applied, seems to have been adopted 
by all later writers, save Nuttall (who saw fit to call the bird 
Fringilla littoralis for' reasons best known to himself), and conse- 
quently the bird has not been burdened with -the multiplicity of 
names that so often fall to the lot of early described species. 
In 1875 a smaller, brighter colored race was separated under 
the name nelsoni (Allen, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H., xvii, March, 
1875, 293) on the evidence of a number of specimens obtained 
by Mr. Edward W. Nelson and others on the Calumet Marshes 
near Ainsworth, Illinois, in September and October, 1874. This 
has proved to be the inland representative of its strictly littoral 
relatives. 
In 1887 I described a race from the marshes of New Brunswick, 
Canada (Dwight, Auk, IV, July 1887, 233) to which I applied the 
name subvirgatus. It is a comparatively pale race that seems to 
have closer affinities with nelsoni than with its nearer breeding 
neighbor caudacutus , and its recognition raises interesting ques- 
tions of distribution yet to be solved. 
