diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 5962a6f..8173d04 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
+unreleased
+==========
+
+Bug Fixes
+---------
+
+- Fix a bug in which ``MappingSchema``, ``SequenceSchema`` and
+  ``TupleSchema`` would always treat the first arg as the schema type. This
+  meant that it would fail if passed any nodes to the constructor despite
+  the default type being implied by the name. It is now possible to do
+  ``MappingSchema(child1, child2, ...)`` instead of
+  ``MappingSchema(Mapping(), child1, child2)``.
+
 1.1 (2016-01-15)
 ================
 
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
index 23a287e..c3fdf73 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
@@ -117,6 +117,7 @@ Contributors
 - Veeti Paananen, 2013/08/20
 - Michael Howitz, 2013/12/05
 - Alex Marandon, 2013/12/21
+- Joe Dallago, 2014/2/10
 - Jaseem Abid, 2014/06/16
 - Cédric Messiant, 2014/06/27
 - Gouji Ochiai, 2014/08/21
diff --git a/colander/__init__.py b/colander/__init__.py
index 35f0715..5178b49 100644
--- a/colander/__init__.py
+++ b/colander/__init__.py
@@ -1908,15 +1908,14 @@ class _SchemaNode(object):
         return node
 
     def __init__(self, *arg, **kw):
-        # bw compat forces us to treat first arg as type always
+        # bw compat forces us to treat first arg as type if not a _SchemaNode
         if 'typ' in kw:
             self.typ = kw.pop('typ')
-            _add_node_children(self, arg)
-        elif arg:
-            self.typ = arg[0]
-            _add_node_children(self, arg[1:])
+        elif arg and not isinstance(arg[0], _SchemaNode):
+            self.typ, arg = arg[0], arg[1:]
         else:
             self.typ = self.schema_type()
+        _add_node_children(self, arg)
 
         # bw compat forces us to manufacture a title if one is not supplied
         title = kw.get('title', self.title)
diff --git a/colander/tests/test_colander.py b/colander/tests/test_colander.py
index a35ecd0..6c8cb5a 100644
--- a/colander/tests/test_colander.py
+++ b/colander/tests/test_colander.py
@@ -3336,6 +3336,13 @@ class TestSchema(unittest.TestCase):
         result = node.serialize(expected)
         self.assertEqual(result, expected)
 
+    def test_imperative_with_implicit_schema_type(self):
+        import colander
+        node = colander.SchemaNode(colander.String())
+        schema = colander.Schema(node)
+        self.assertEqual(schema.schema_type, colander.Mapping)
+        self.assertEqual(schema.children[0], node)
+
 class TestSequenceSchema(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_succeed(self):
         import colander
@@ -3369,6 +3376,13 @@ class TestSequenceSchema(unittest.TestCase):
             e.msg,
             'Sequence schemas must have exactly one child node')
 
+    def test_imperative_with_implicit_schema_type(self):
+        import colander
+        node = colander.SchemaNode(colander.String())
+        schema = colander.SequenceSchema(node)
+        self.assertEqual(schema.schema_type, colander.Sequence)
+        self.assertEqual(schema.children[0], node)
+
 class TestTupleSchema(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_it(self):
         import colander
@@ -3380,6 +3394,13 @@ class TestTupleSchema(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(node.typ.__class__, colander.Tuple)
         self.assertEqual(node.children[0].typ.__class__, colander.String)
 
+    def test_imperative_with_implicit_schema_type(self):
+        import colander
+        node = colander.SchemaNode(colander.String())
+        schema = colander.TupleSchema(node)
+        self.assertEqual(schema.schema_type, colander.Tuple)
+        self.assertEqual(schema.children[0], node)
+
 class TestFunctional(object):
     def test_deserialize_ok(self):
         import colander.tests