The distribution and relationships of <I>Ammodrumus maritimus</I> its allies

THE ^AUK:

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF

ORNITHOLOGY.

vol.

xvi.

January,

1899.

No.

1.

THE DISTRIBUTION AND RELATIONSHIPS OF AMMO- DRAMUS MARITIMUS AND ITS ALLIES.

BY

FRANK

M.

CHAPMAN.

Plate I.

A

field experience with four of our five recognized Seaside Sparrowshasbeenthe

means

of calling

my

attention to certain apparent anomaliesin their distribution and relationshipswhich inthe followingpagesI have attemptedto

make

clear.

The

materialat

my command

while not wholly satisfactory,is nevertheless,I trust,sufficient to warrant a provisional explana- tion of the facts it presents. It numbers

some

160 specimens, includingseriesloaned

me

by Mr. Robert

Ridgway

from thecol- lectionsunderhischarge, by Mr. WilliamBrewsterandDr.A. K.

Fisher,andalso the examplesin the American

Museum

of Nat- uralHistory.

The

specimensloaned

me

bythegentlemen

named

constitute so important a part of the material studiedthatIfeel under

more

than usual obligation tothem.

From

Mr.

Ridgway

Ihave receiveda series of

May

birds col- lectedbyMr. E. A. Mcllhenny onthecoastof Louisiana,and of breeding birdscollectedbyLieut. WirtRobinson nearSt.Augus-

tine,Florida^; Mr.Brewster sendsspecimens fromthe west coast of Florida, breeding birds collected by himself at St. Mary's, Georgia,andamostpuzzlingseriesfrom the vicinityof Charles-

2 Chapman,TheSeaside Sparrows. [^^a u u

ton,South Carolina, while Dr. Fisher forwards breeding birdsand younginfirstplumage 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- edgeof the distribution and relationships of the five described forms, namely:

Ammodramus

maritftnus,A. m. peninsula,A. m.

semietti,A.m.macgillivraii,and A.nigrescens. Ofthesefiveforms, whichare here givenunder theircurrentnames, thestatus of A.

nigrescensandA. m.sennettiisapparentlyclearandthesetwobirds

may

^be considered before taking up the perplexing questions presentedbythe remainingthreeforms.

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.facingp.560.

Ammodramus

melanoleucusMaynard,

Am.

Sportsman, V, 1S75, 24S;

Birds of E. N. A. 1881, 119,pi.

V

(descr., habits,dist.)

Ammodramus

nigrescensRidgw. Proc. U.S.Nat.Mus.Ill, 1SS0, 17S;

Chapman,Auk,XV,1S9S,270(habits).

This strongly

marked

species was discovered by Mr. C. _J.

Maynard

at Salt Lake, near Titusville, Florida, in March, 18^2.

Onlya singlespecimen wassecuredatthis locality,but he after-

wards foundittobe"quite

common"

on the marshes bordering theeastshoreofthe Indian River, oppositeTitusville,asrecorded in the ^'American Sportsman^' and ^'Birds of Eastern North America.'

The

informationcontainedinthese publications con- stitutedallour published knowledge of the life historyand dis- tribution of this species until theappearance of

my

note on its

abundanceinthemarshes 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 whichIhave, sofar as I know,takenall of the speci-

mens

in collections,excepting two,thatwereshotbyafriend

who

waswith

me

in Florida,but

who

took thetwoin question after I

left, occurs rarely about Salt Lake,

Upper

St. Johns, Florida,

commonly

onthenorthern endof Merritt's Island,onthemarshy

V°!'8^

VI

] Chapman, The SeasideSparrows, 7 islands of

Banana

River, on the marshes north of this lagoon, westtotheIndian River, north along this bodyof water to the HauloverCanal. Itnever occurs outof themarsh grass or low water bush.

Thus

thebird is confinedto a belt of country not over a quarter ofa mile wide and about ten miles long, if fol-

lowed throughitsextent."

When

oneconsiders the abundance of this Sparrow and that the regionitinhabitsisinno senseinsolated,butthatbothtothe northandsouthofthearea outlinedabovethere aremarshesappar- entlysimilar tothoseit occupies,itsrestriction to a habitat only afew square milesinextent

makes

itsdistribution unique

among

American birds. In color it is the most strongly characterized formofthegroup, the blackwhichprevailsontheupperpartsand so heavily streaks almost theentireunderparts,notbeing equalled in intensityor extentinany of itscongeners. Seventeen speci-

mens

taken in March, 1898,at themouth of Dummitt'sCreek, are incomparativelyunworn plumage and present littlevariation in color. Their average measurements are: wing, 2.50; tail,

2.04; billfromnostril, .43 inches.

The

nearest pointatwhichanother representative of thisgroup hasbeensecuredisMatanzas Inlet, Florida.

Ammodramus

sennetti {Allen).

Ammodramus

marilimus sennetti Allen, Auk, V, 1S8S, 2S6 (oii^.

descr.); Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus.Nat. Hist. Ill, 1S91,323 ^(habits);

Rhoads,Proc.Acad.Nat.Sci.Phila.1S92, 109.

As

the second most distinct form in the group and the only one, except A. uigrescens,which apparently does not inter°rade with its allies,

we may

next treat of the Seaside Finch resident at CorpusChristi,Texas.

In April, 1891, I found the bird abundant and breeding in the marshes of Nueces Bay.

A

series of thirteen specimens showsthat it

more

nearlyresemblestrue marilimus than itdees any other

member

of the group. It is,however, quite distinct from that form, being distinguished chieflyby its greener color andtheblack centerstothe feathersof theupper parts.

To

the form geographically nearest to it, the dark Seaside Sparrow

a Chapman, TheSeaside Sf^arrows. \j\va.

breeding on the coast of Louisiana, the Corpus Christi bird is lessclosely related than to anyother formofthe group, except A.nigrescens. Thereis noevidencewhateverofitsintergradation withanyof itscongeners and consequentlyno reason for deny- ingitspecificrank.

Ammodramus maritimus

etsubsp.

Having

disposedof thetwo forms whose statusis clearest

we may now

approach those whose relationships and distribution present certain apparent anomalies. Before discussing the questions involved in a studyof these birds it will be well to first give briefly our recorded information concerning their distribution andtheaccepted views in regardto their relation- ships.

Ammodramus maritimus

(fVi/s.)

.

In the secondedition of theA. O. U. ^'Check-List' the range of thisspeciesis given as " Salt marshes of the Atlantic Coast, fromConnecticut southward to Georgia. Accidental in Massa- chusetts." Recentrecords

show

thebirdtobea regular

summer

resident in

Rhode

Island and as far east as Westport, Mass., justbeyond the

Rhode

Island State line.¹

The

locality "Geor- gia,"giveninthe^'Check-List,'isevidentlybased onMr. William Brewster's identification of the series of twelve breedingbirds takenby himself, in

some

instances with nests and eggs, at St.

Mary's, Georgia.²

In the second edition of his 'Manual,' Appendix, page _602, Mr.

Ridgway

gives the range of maritimus as "Massachusetts tonorthern Florida," thelatterlocalitybeing doubtless based on Lieut.Robinson'sbreeding birds from St.Augustine and Matan- zasInlet,which Ihave previouslymentioned as included inthe series loaned

me

byMr. Ridgway.

1See Howe, Auk XIV,1897,219;Sturtevant,ibid.322;Farley,ibid.322.

2Auk,XII,1890, 212.

!8 99 Chapman,TheSeaside Sparrows. r

Ammodramus maritimus

peninsulae Allen.

Thisracewasdescribedby Dr._J.A. Allenfrom specimenscol- lected by

W.

E.D. ScottatTarponSprings,on thewest coastof Florida, in February, 1888.¹ With the Florida birds Dr. Allen identified a series of ten adult and six immature birds collected

by

Dr. A. K. Fisher at

Grand

Isle, Louisiana, in June, 1886.

Shortly afterward Dr. Allen recorded a specimen of peninsula, inthecollection ofG. S. Miller,_Jr., which had been collected on Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia, Dec. 14, 1887.² Mr.

Brewsteralsoreferred topeninsula two specimens takenon this sameisland inDecember, 1887,and Dr. Allenidentified with the

same

formaspecimen from near Charleston, S.C.³

Mr.

W.

E. D. Scott recordspeninsulce as avery

common

winter resident near

Tarpon

Springs,⁴the type locality,where, however,

itdoesnot breed. Infactthebreedinggroundsof this Sparrow on the Gulf coast appear to be as yet unknown. Mr. C. _J.

Maynard

⁵states thathe found Seaside Sparrows, doubtless this form, abouttobreedatCedar Keys,Florida, in February.

The

date is surprisinglyearlybut it is quite probable thatpeninsula

may

breedinthe marshesatCedar Keys.

Ammodramus maritimus

macgillivraii Ridgiv. (not of

Audubon)

.

March

_25, 1891, I collected at Corpus Christi, Texas, two specimens of adark Seaside Sparrow which were provisionally referred topeninsula, with the statement that they were darker thanthatformand hadgray instead of olivaceous edgingsto the feathers.⁶

They

were evidently wintervisitantsand their breed- ing ground remained

unknown

until Mr. E. A.

Mcllhenny

col- lectedalarge series ofbreeding birdson andnear Avery'sIsland,

1Auk,V,1888, 284. *Ibid.,V,1888, 426.

3Ibid.,VII,1890, 212. ⁴Auk,VI,1889, 322.

Birds E.N.A., 121. ⁶Bull.Am.Mus. Nat.Hist., Ill, 1891, 324.

6

^{Chapmax, The SeasideSparrows,}

[j^

Louisiana.

Then

it appeared that the birds collected by Dr.

Fisher at

Grand

Isle were also referable to this form. These birds, with the Corpus Christi specimens just mentioned, were considered by Mr.

Ridgway

¹ to represent Fringilla macgillivraii described by

Audubon

² from Charleston, South Carolina, and saidlaterby^thesamewriter to alsooccuronthe coastof Louisi- ana and Texas.³ This

name

had previouslybeen synonymized withthat of

Ammodramus

^{maritimusunderthe belief that it was} based onaspecimenof thatbirdinfirstplumage.

The

following year Dr.Walter

Faxon

called attention to the fact⁴ that Audubon's description of macgillivraii having been based on specimens fromCharleston,South Carolina,a locality in whichpeninsulawas

known

to occur, the

name

macgillivraiiwas obviously applicable ^tothe bird

known

aspeninsula and notto thequite differentbirdofLouisiana.

In attempting

now

to explain the peculiar conditions which this brief

summary

of current viewshas set forth,oneisatonce confronted with the difficulty which has beset all students of these birds, that is,the unusually worn plumage of breeding birds. Sogreatlydoes this abrasion affect a bird's appearance that almost the ^entire range of color variation between mariti-

mus

andthe Louisiana ^bird,respectively thelightestand darkest

members

of this restrictedgroup,is

shown

in Dr.Fisher's series ofbreeding birdsfrom

Grand

Isle. Specimensinworn plumage, therefore,must be examinedwith great care and identified only after the closest comparison.

Hence

in order to clearlygrasp the characters separating these three formsitwill be necessary touse non-breeding examples.

Thus

Ihave selecteda series of fall and early spring⁵ birds from

Long

Island, N. Y., Tarpon

1Manual N.A.Birds,2ndEd., 1896,App.602.

2Orn.^Biog.II,1834, 285.

3/to/.,IV,1838, 394.

4Auk, XIV,1897, 3 21^-

5It isremarkable,inviewof the rapidandextreme abrasionof theplumage of breeding^birds,howlittletheplumage showsthe effects ofwear andtear during the winter. Thereispractically no differencebetweenthe plumage of -September specimensandthose takenearly inthefollowingspring.

Vol.XVI

iSgg Chapman, The Seaside Spat

Springs, Florida,

—

^{the type locality of} peninsula,

—

and Texas.

From

the last

named

State I have only three specimens repre- senting the dark, west Gulf coast form, but the characters they present are shown, by comparison with Mr. Mcllhenny's series of breeding birds from and near Avery's Island, La., to be typical.

From

a careful studyof this material it appears that infresh and unworn plumage the three forms are tobe distin- guishedfrom one another chieflyby^the characters set forth in theappendedtabular synopsis.

Here

it

may

bebrieflysaid that maritimus is greenish olive margined with bluish gray above, with the breast and flanks streaked with bluish grayand mar- gined with buff. In peninsula the upper parts are dull black marginedwith greenisholive,the breastandflanksbeingstreaked with duskyblack margined withbuff or bluish gray, while the darkwest Gulf coastformhas the upper parts deep blackbor- dered by

mummy brown

and margined with bluish gray, the breastandflanksbeingdistinctlystreaked withblackandheavily marginedwith pale ochraceous.

Bearing these differencesin

mind we may

approachthe puzzling series of non-breeding birds from South Carolina and Georgia.

It contains thirty-one adults and two immature (first plumage) specimens. Fifteenofthe adults areperfectly typical, in color, of

Long

Island maritimus. Only one has the wing under2.40 in., their average measurements being: wing, 2.46; tail, 2.18; bill

from nostril, 45 ^in.

They

thus closely approach

Long

Island birdsin size (see table of measurements beyond)^,evidence that theywerewinter residentsfromthenorth.

Oftheremainingsixteen adults ten are intermediate between maritimus andpeninsula, most of them approaching the latter

much

more closely than the former. Their average measure- ments are: wing, 2.40; tail, 2.15; ^bill from nostril, 45. Nine of these birds are in Mr. Brewster'scollection, seven of them beinglabeledby him^"peninsula."

I believe these birds to be resident, racial representatives of maritimus, markingastage in the geographical variation in this species, which,onthewest coastofFlorida,appears as peninsula.

A

specimen, evidently breeding, collectedby Dr. Coues at Fort Macon,N.

C,

April 15,1869 (U. S.N.

M.

_{No. 55523)} isappre-

8

^{Chapman,TheSeaside Sparrows.} \JvL

ciablydarker thancomparable

Long

Island birds and apparently indicatesan approachtothe peninsula type,as it is represented onthe Atlantic coast bybirdssimilar to the ten specimens first mentioned.

To

thisintermediate,South Atlanticform of mariti-

mus

Ireferwithsomeconfidence Brewster'sbreeding birdsfromSt.

Mary's, Georgia,andRobinson's breeding birdsfrom the vicinity ofSt. Augustine and MatanzasInlet,Florida. Thesebirds,I

am

aware,have beenreferredto true maritimusandtheir plumage ^is in such worn condition that it is true they closely resemble, at first sight,

Long

Island specimens of that species. Carefully compared, however, with equally worn

Long

Island birds,they are grayerand more streaked below, while the lateral stripes of the crown, areas which seem least to showabrasion,are darker than inmaritimus, being raw-umber as in peninsula,agreeing in fact, consideringtheirabrasion, veryclosely inthecolor of this region with the ten specimenswhich I have spoken of as inter- mediatebetweenmaritimusandpeninsula.

Accepting this identification, what shall

we

call this dark representative of

AmmoJramus

maritimus which apparentlyis a permanent^residenton the Atlantic coastfromatleast St. Augus- tine to Charleston? Individually they have for the most part beenidentified aspeninsula,andwhiletheyhavelonger billsand are less green above and less heavilystreaked belowthan true peninsula, they are so

much

nearerto thisformthantomaritimus, thatI should preferto refer them to the former rather than to thelatter,or ratherthantoaccept the alternative of givingthem a

name

of their own.

This leaves us with sixspecimensof the South Carolina and Georgia serieswhich can be referred to neither maritimus nor peninsula. Three of these birds are in the collection of the United States National

Museum

(Nos. 159387, 9,Oct. 24,1893;

No. 159383, 9,^Oct. 27, 1893; No. 159657, 9, Oct. _23, 1895, all taken at

Mount

Pleasant, So. Car.),and three are in Mr.

Brewster's ^collection (No. 19047, 9, Dec. 3, 1887, Sapelo Is., Ga.; No. 45753>

$

>

Nov

-2 7> l894 and No. ₄₇6₅6> ?»

A

_P^{ril J}_7>

1897,

Mount

Pleasant,So.Car.). In the colorationoftheupper parts they resemble the dark, west Gulf coast bird, but the black of the feathers of the upperparts is marginedwith olive

V<

JjJ VI

] Chapman, The Seaside Sparrows.

9

instead of

mummy

brown,the napeis

more

olive, and,with the exception of No. 159388, the breast and flanks are

much

less stronglystreaked andlessheavilywashedwith buffy ochraceous, the colorationofthesepartsagreeing withthat ofpeninsula.

Apparentlythesetwo formsof Seaside Sparrow, representedby

my

series of ten and six birds respectively, are found breeding in the

same

area,afactwhich is evidently proven by two birds in first or nestling plumage.

One

ofthese (U. S. Nat. Mus.

No. _159389,

$)

was takenbyMr. A. T.

Wayne

at

Mount

Pleas- ant, So. Car., Aug. 10, 1893, andis obviously the offspring of a verydark Seaside Sparrow, being

much

blacker than anyof a dozen

New York

examplesin similar plumage,and infact agree- ing verywellwith sixyoungbirds collectedby Dr. A. K. Fisher on

Grand

Isie, La., June 6-9, 1S96. This is evidently the progenyofthedarkbirdjustdescribed.

The

otheryoung bird (No. 12437, Coll.

Wm.

Brewster) was collected by Mr. Walter Hoxie, near Frogmore, So. Car., Aug.

10, 1886. It is

much

lighterthan the

Mount

Pleasantspecimen, with which it agrees in age, and approaches young tnaritimus from

New

York,differing from ittojust about the same extent and in

much

the

same manner

as do the peninsalee-tnarititniis adultsof this region from adult true tnaritimus. This bird is apparently the offspring ofpeninsulx-maritimus parents.

Hence

the breeding of these birds and of the dark typein thesame region is shown both by the presence of adults and their respective offspring.

What

their interrelationships

may

be, and whether they occupy different breeding areas, are questions which can be settled only by observation in the field. Speci-

mens

before

me

apparently show their intergradation but

my

material does notadmitof satisfactory conclusions.

However,admitting that

we

have twoforms,

we

are

now

con- frontedbythe questionof nomenclature.

What names

shall

we

applyto them?

The

peninsuhz-maritimus specimens, as I have previously said, should, in

my

opinion,be identified with penin- sula rather than with maritinins,butwhatshall

we

call theblack and gray birds? Unquestionably, it seems tome,they represent macgillivraii ofAudubon, andwhilehealso placed the Louisiana and Texas^birdsunder thisname,there can be no doubtthat, as

IO

Chapman, TheSeaside Sparrows. _\j&n.

Dr. Faxon had shown, he ^figured and described specimens col- lected near Charleston by Dr. Bachman. In support of this statement see

Volume

II,page 285 of the Ornithological Biog- raphy,onwhich

Audubon

states that

Bachman

presentedhimwith adozen specimensof thisSparrowcollectednear Charleston,where

J.

W. Audubon made

thedrawingwhich wasafterward published inthe fourth volumeof the'Birdsof America.'

No

mention is

made

in

Volume

IIof Texas and Louisiana,where the birdwas evidently not discovered until several years later, being first recorded from these States in

Volume

IV, page _394, of the 'Ornithological Biography,' published in 1838, ^or four years afterthe descriptionof^'Fringilla macgillitiraii'' from Charleston.

The

specimen upon which this descriptionwas probablybased

is

now

intheU. S.Nat. Mus. (No. 2894) but ^iswithout date or locality. Itisayoungbirdinfirstplumage,of the same age as the specimen taken at Mt. Pleasant,S.

C,

Aug. 10, 1893, from whichitdiffersno more than do immature specimens of mariti-

mus

from one another.

Ifthisview.of the case be accepted it will permit us to give the Louisiana birda

name

of its own, acoursewhich the speci-

mens

involved seem to warrant.

And

I therefore propose to

name

it in honor of Dr. A.K. Fisher who, after Audubon, was thefirstornithologist tosecure specimens of the Louisiana bird.

Hence

we have

Ammodramus ^maritimus

^fisheri, subsp. nov.

Ammodramus

macgillivraiiAud.(in part) Orn. Biog. IV, 183S, 394.

Ammodramus

maritimus macgillivrayiRidgw. ManualN. A. Birds, 2d Ed.,1S96,App.602.

Ammodramus

maritimuspeninsula?

Allen

(in part),Auk,V,1S8S, 284.

Ammodramus

maritimuspeninsula;? Chapm. Bull.

Am.

Mus. Nat.

Hist.,Ill,1891, 324.

Char. Subsp.

—

Upperpartsdeepblack, in fresh plumage the feathers bordered by

mummy

brownand margined with bluish gray, the breast andflanks streakedwith black andmoreorless heavilywashed bypale ochraceous.

Type, No.163,722,U.S.Nat. Mus. Collectedby A. K. Fisher, M. D.

Collector'snumberNo.2622, $^ad.,egginoviduct,GrandIsle,Louisiana, June9,1886.

V0l i8£VI

] Chapman,The SeasideSparrows. II Range.

—

Coast of GulfStates,breedingfrom GrandIsle, La.,west- ward,probablyto northeasternTexas, southward in winter to Corpus Christi,Texas,and TarponSprings, Florida.¹

In theappendedtable acomparison of the diagnostic charac- tersofall the forms of the restricted maritimus group in fresh plumage is given.

As

before remarked, abrasion so alters a breedingbird'sappearancethat in

some

cases badlyworn speci-

mens

are practically unidentifiable.

Of

the ₁₇ breeding birds collectedbyDr. Fisheron

Grand

Isle and by Mr. Mcllhenny on andnearAverys Island, all but four are'more or less suffused with paleochraceousonthebreastand flanks,the most diagnos- tic character presented byfisheri, and about halfthe seriesare

stillmoreor less distinctly streaked with black below. It is in

unworn

plumage, however,that the differential characters of these birds aremost evident, and ^itison specimens in thiscon- ditionthattheappendedtable comparing the four forms of the restrictedmaritimusgroupisbased.

Table of diagnostic characters of Seaside Sparrows of the

Ammodramus

maritimus group.

Crown.

Maritimus.

—

Sides olive with occasionally black shaft-streaks, median line well defined,bluishgray.

Peninsulce.

—

Sides dullblack, margined with raw umber, median line illdefined,bluish gray.

Macgillivraii.

—

Sidesdeepblack,margined with

mummy

brown,median lineilldefined,bluish gray.

Fisheri.

—

Sidesdeepblack,margined with

mummy

brown,median line illdefined,bluish gray.²

Nape.

Maritimus.

—

Palegreenisholive.

Peninsula:.

—

Greenisholive.

Macgillivraii.

— Tawny

olive.

Fisheri.

— Mummy

^brown.

1No._43472, 9, Tarpon Springs, Nov. 2, 1891. Coll.

Wm.

Brewster, is clearly referable to fisheri.

2Ridgway's^'NomenclatureofColors'isused throughoutthispaper.

I2 Warren, The CanadaJay. _\jl*.

Back.

Maritimus.

—

Olive,margined bybluish gray.

Peninsula.

—

Dullblack, margined bygreenisholive.

Macgillivraii.

—

Deep black,borderedbygreenish olive and margined with bluish gray.

Fisheri.

—

Deep black, bordered by

mummy

brown and margined by bluish gray.

Breast.

Maritimus.

—

Streaked with bluish gray,marginedwithbuff.

Peninsula;.

—

Streaked wi|h dusky,marginedwithbuffor bluish gray.¹ Macgillivraii.

—

Streakedwith dusky,marginedwithbuff.

Fisheri.

—

Streaked with black, widelymarginedwith pale ochraceous.

Flanks.

Maritimus.

—

Obscurelystreaked with bluish gray and faintly washed withbuff.

Peninsula.

—

Streaked with dusky,margined with grayish orolive buff.

Macgillivraii.

—

Streaked with dusky,marginedwithbuff.

Fisherii.

—

Streaked withblack,widelymarginedwith pale ochraceous.