Sierra Madre Sparrow

SCI Name:  Xenospiza baileyi
Protonym:  Xenospiza baileyi Proc.NewEngl.Zool.Cl. 12 p.87
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Passerellidae / Xenospiza
Taxonomy Code:  simspa1
Type Locality:  Bolanos, Jalisco, Mexico.
Author:  Bangs
Publish Year:  1931
IUCN Status:  Endangered

DEFINITIONS

XENOSPIZA
(Passerellidae; Ϯ Sierra Madre Sparrow X. baileyi) Gr. ξενος xenos  stranger; σπιζα spiza  finch  < σπιζω spizō  to chirp. The Sierra Madre Sparrow was described from the single skin “of a very peculiar little American bunting” which had languished in the collections of the MCZ, Harvard, for some years. “All who saw it declared it a hybrid. Ridgway wrote saying he had never seen anything like it, and ventured no guess as to its parentage, simply calling it a hybrid. Nelson did likewise. Oberholser thought it sprang from a union of Coturniculus henslowi and Passerculus savanna. This was also Brewster’s opinion. A. K. Fisher suggested Passerculus savanna and Melospiza georgiana as possible parents” (Bangs 1931); "The Bryant collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology contained a skin of a bunting secured in Jalisco, Mexico in 1889.  It had always been regarded as a hybrid, although opinion differed widely as to its parentage and there was no clear evidence of hybridism.  Now Mr. A. M. Bailey has obtained a second example in Durango and Mr. Bangs describes the bird as a new species and genus Xenospiza baileyi" (Anon. 1932, in Recent Literature, Auk, XLIX (1), 128).

baileyi
● Dr Alfred Marshall Bailey (1894-1978) US ornithologist, field-worker, collector, Director of Chicago Academy of Sciences 1927-1936, Director of Denver Mus. of Natural History 1936-1969 (syn. Eremophila alpestris enertera, subsp. Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax, Xenospiza).
● W. T. Bailey (fl. 1887) Australian collector in Queensland (subsp. Dicrurus bracteatus, subsp. Podargus papuensis).
● Lt.-Col. Frederick Marshman Bailey (1882-1967) British Army, intelligence officer/ explorer in Tibet, China and Tashkent, Political Officer in Sikkim 1921-1928 (syn. Yuhina flavicollis rouxi).