Description of a new subspecies of the painted bunting from the interior of Texas

(1)

Vol.

XXIV,

pp. 217-218 October _31, 1911

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

DESCRIPTION OF

^A.

NEW SUBSPECIES OF THE PAINTED BUNTING FROM THE INTERIOR

OF TEXAS.

BY EDGAR

^A.

MEARNS.

The _Nonpareil,

or

Painted Bunting,

^of

western Texas _proves

to be

an undescribed

race

which may ^be named —

Passerina ciris pallidiorsubsp. nov.

PALE PAINTED

BUNTING.

Type-specimen.—Adult^male. ^Cat, No. _163673, U. S. X.

M.

Collected at Fort Clark,

Kinney

County, Texas,

May

^7,^1898, by Edgar^A.Mearns.

Original number, ^11800.

Characters.

—

Larger than Passerinacirisciris_; adult malewith under parts considerably paler vermilion red;

rump ^and

upper tail-coverts paler,

more

_purplish red. Female _paler throughout, with upper parts paler,grayer, ^lessyellowish green,

and

under_partsbuffy instead^ofdecid- edlyyellow.

Measurements _{of type}(takenfromthe freshspecimen bythe author).

—

Length, ^loo

mm.

; alarexpanse, 240; wing,75; tail,61; culmen_(chord), 11.2; tarsus, 18.3; middletoewithclaw, ^18.3.

Geographical range.

—

Breedsin theinterior ofTexas,migrating^to^Ari- zona, Mazatlan,

and

_{the plains} ofColima.

Hi

marks.—

_Topotypes of Passerina ciris ciris fromVera Cruz, eastern Mexico, are indistinguishable from specimens from ^the southeastern United States,

and

are probably migrants from^the latter region.

The

breedingrangeof typical^ciris extends westwardfromtheSouth Atlantic StatesaroundtheGulfcoastto Mexico.

A

table ofcomparative measurementsappearson following page.

10—Proc. Biol. Soc.Wash., Vol. XXIV,1911. (217

(2)

218 Mearns — _A New

Subspeciesof Painted

Bunting from

^Texas.