Vol. 30, pp. 27-28 February 21, 1917 PROCEEDINGS OF THK BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SIALIA FROM MEXICO. BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. Some time ago Dr. Louis B. Bishop sent me for examination four specimens of a bluebird from northeastern Mexico. Upon comparison with abundant material these proved to represent a new subspecies of Sialia sialis. Dr. Bishop has generously donated these specimens to the Biological Survey collection in the United States National Museum, and has permitted the writer to present the accompanying description . This new race may be called: Sialia sialis episcopus, subsp. now* Chars, subsp. — Similar to Sialia sialis fulva, but blue of upper parts rather darker, and anterior lower parts very much darker. Description.— Type, adult male, No. 241,188, U. S. N. M. (No. 23,808 Louis B. Bishop) ; Santa Engracia, Tamaulipas, Mexico, December 15, 1911 ; F. B. Armstrong. Interscapulum rich blue, between methyl blue and spectrum blue, the feathers with a few rusty edgings ; rest of upper parts, including upper surface of tail, lighter blue, between light methyl blue and salvia blue, the tail somewhat duller, more grayish ; wing-quills terminally fuscous black, shading basally to pale brown, most of the outer webs and all but the marginal half of the inner webs, together with all of the superior wing-coverts, blue like the upper surface; sides of head blue like the pileum, but somewhat paler and mixed with grayish brown ; chin mixed whitish and dull grayish blue; throat, breast, and sides dull chestnut, between chestnut and auburn ; abdomen and crissum white; lining of wing light gray mixed with white and washed with blue. Geographic distribution. — State of Tamaulipas, Mexico, north to the lower Rio Grande Valley in central southern Texas. Remarks. — -This very interesting new form is in general characters somewhat intermediate between Sialia sialis sialis and Sialia sialis fulva, combining, as it does, the light, more or less greenish, upper parts of the latter with the deep-colored anterior lower parts of the former. It differs from Sialia sialis sialis conspicuously in its lighter, more greenish blue upper surface; and from Sialia sialis guatemalae in its much darker lower * Named for Dr. Louis B. Bishop. 9— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash.. Vol. 30, 1917. (27)
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