October 31, 1914 
U 0 b \ 
Vol. XXVII, pp. 213-214 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 
AN APPARENTIA'NEW SPOROITIILA FROM ECUADOR. 
BY J. M. KILEY. 
[I5y perniissiou of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.] 
In a small collection of birds from Ecuador presented to the 
U. S. National Museum by Mr. Otto Holstein, of San Antonio, 
'rexas, there is an apiiarently unnamed S-porophila. It may be 
known as: 
Sporophila incerta sp. nov. 
Type, U. S. National Museum, No. 2.‘}()58G (uusexed but apparently a 
male), (Ttialia, Ecuador. 
Characters. —Similar to Sporophila grisea Gmeliu, but larger, darker 
above, and with the white below more restricted. 
Description. —Above deep neutral gray, darker on the head and cheeks ; 
throat, upper breast, and tianks neutral gray, much lighter on the chin; 
middle of the breast and belly white, the feathers gray at the base; under 
tail-coverts white with gray bases to the feathers, the longer ones with a 
huffy tinge at the tips; wings blackish, the feathers edged with deep 
neutral gray; fourth to eighth primaries white at the base of the outer 
web, forming a speculum; inner webs of the primaries and secondaries 
commencing with the third primary, bordered with white at the base; 
bend of the wing below deep neutral gray; under wing-coverts white; 
tail blackish. Wing, 66; tail, f-l.d: culmen, 11.5; tarsus, 15.5; middle 
toe, 12 mm. 
Remarks.— specimens of Sporophila grisea (mo.stly unscxcd, but 
apparently males) from Venezuela (1), Trinidad (1), and Columbia (3), 
average as follows: wing, 57; tail, 45.6; culmen, 10.5; tarsus, 15.7; 
middle toe, 11.5 mm. I can find no record for Sj>orophila grisea irom 
Ecuador and while the relationship of the above described siiecimen 
would probably be better expre.ssed by a trinomial, I prefer for the 
present to use a binomial. 
42—pkoc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXVII. 1914. 
(213) 
