~*** afiSirv? 
2 Chapman, The Seaside Sparrows. rAuk 
ton, South Carolina, while Dr. Fisher forwards breeding birds and 
young in first plumage from Grand Isle, Louisiana. 
The questions involved in a study of these birds may be 
best presented by a brief consideration of our recorded knowl- 
edge of the distribution and relationships of the five described 
forms, namely : Ammodramus maritimus , A. m. peninsula, A. m. 
sennetti , A. m. macgillivraii, and A. nigrescens. Of these five forms, 
which are here given under their current names, the status of A. 
nigt escens and A. m. sennetti is apparently clear and these two birds 
may be considered before taking up the perplexing questions 
presented by the remaining three forms. 
Ammodramus nigrescens ( Ridgw .). 
Ammodramus maritimus var. nigrescens Ridgw. Bull. Essex Inst. V, 
1873, 198; B. B. & R. N. A. Birds, III, 1875, App. 513 (descr. only) 
ibid. I, pi. facing p. 560. 
Ammodramus melanoleuctis Maynard, Am. Sportsman, V, 1875, 24S; 
Birds of E. N. A. 1881, 119, pi. V (descr., habits, dist.) 
Ammodramus nigrescens Ridgw. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Ill, 1880, 178; 
Chapman, Auk, XV, 1898, 270 (habits). 
This strongly marked species was discovered by Mr. C. J. 
Maynard at Salt Lake, near Titusville, Florida, in March, 1892. 
Only a single specimen was secured at this locality, but he after- 
wards found it to be “ quite common ” on the marshes bordering 
the east shore of the Indian River, opposite Titusville, as recorded 
in the ‘ American Sportsman ’ and ‘ Birds of Eastern North 
America.’ The information contained in these publications con- 
stituted all our published knowledge of the life history and dis- 
tribution of this species until the appearance of my note on its 
abundance in the marshes about the mouth of Dummitt’s Creek 
(Auk, 1 . c.), but Mr. Maynard has furnished me with the follow- 
ing valuable data in regard to its distribution, which, with his 
kind permission, I print in full : “ The Black and White Shore 
Finch, of which I have, so far as I know, taken all of the speci- 
mens in collections, excepting two, that were shot by a friend who 
was with me in Florida, but who took the two in question after I 
left, occurs rarely about Salt Lake, Upper St. Johns, Florida, 
commonly on the northern end of Merritt’s Island, on the marshy 
