Compsothlypis americana usneae.
DESCRIPTIONS OF A NEW WARBLER AND A NEW
SONG SPARROW.
Auk, XIII, Jan., 1896, pp. 44-46.
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 I propose to call the latter
Compsothlypis americana usneæ,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 ludovicianana Briss. (Orn. III, 1760, p. 500, pl. 26), Motacilla ludovi-
ciana Gmel. (Sys. Nat. I, 1788, p. 983, based on Brisson) and Motacilla eques
Boddært (Planches Enlum., 1783, pl. 731, fig. 1, 709 fig. 1) all relate exclu-
sively to the southern bird. Sylvia torquata Vieill. (Ois. Am. Sept., II, 1807,
p. 38, pl. 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, 1811, p. 17, pl. 28) is preoccupied in Latham's ‘Index Ornithologicus,’
Supplement, II. 1801, p. 56, by Sylvia pusilla = Acanthisa pusilla Vigors, an
Australian bird belonging to the family Timeliidae.
² This bird usually, if not invariably, builds its nest in or of the Usnea
‘moss,’ while its southern representative, the true C. americana, is almost
equally addicted to nesting in the Spanish moss (Tillandsia).
two forms save by the difference in size, and in the shape and pro-
29