C oixrp s o t h 1 yj) i s 
ainericana usneae. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF A NEW WARBLER AND A NEW 
SONG SPARROW. 
Auk, XIII, Jan. , 1896, 9/*-9*, 
BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 
On examining the large series of Parula Warblers contained in 
the United States National Museum and in my own collection — 
in all upwards of two hundred specimens — I find that the birds 
which breed in the lowlands of our Southern States differ so 
appreciably from those which pass their summers at the North 
as to make it desirable to separate the two subspecifically. The 
southern form has first claim to the name americana , for Catesby’s 
excellent plate and description of “Parus fringillaris ” (Nat. 
Hist. Car., etc. I, 1731, p. 64), on which Linnaeus based his 
Parus americanus (Sys. Nat., I, 1758, p. 190), were unmistakably 
taken from a southern bird. As no one of the other names 
which have been applied to the species at large seems to be 
clearly available for the northern form, 1 1 propose to call the latter 
Compsothlypis americana usneae, 2 new subspecies. North¬ 
ern Parula Warbler. 
Type , $ ad., No. 5392, Collection of W. Brewster, Lake Umbagog, 
Maine, May 14, 1881; W. Brewster. 
1 Ficedula ludoviciana Briss. (Orn. Ill, 1760, p. 500, pi. 26), Motacilla ludovi- 
ciana Gmel. (Sys. Nat. I, 1788, p. 983, based on Brisson) and Motacilla eques 
Boddaert (Planches Enlum., 1783, pi. 731, fig. 1, 709 fig. 1) all relate exclu¬ 
sively to the southern bird. Sylvia torquata Vieill. (Ois. Am. Sept., II, 1807, 
p. 38, pi. 99) is in some doubt inasmuch as “New York” is mentioned in 
connection with its range, but the accompanying description, as far as it can 
be identified, applies to the southern form. Sylvia pusilla Wils. (Am. Orn. 
IV, 181 r, p. 17, pi. 28) is preoccupied in Latham’s ‘Index Ornithologicus,’ 
Supplement, II. 1801, p. 56, by Sylvia pusilla = Acanthizapusilla Vigors, an 
Australian bird belonging to the family Timeliida. 
2 This bird usually, if not invariably, builds its nest in or of the Usnea 
1 moss,’ while its southern representative, the true C. americana , is almost 
equally addicted to nesting-in the Spanish moss (Tillandsia). 
two iorms save Dy tne cunerence m size, ana in tne snape and pro- 
