Swarth — Three New Subspecies of Passer ella iliaca. 163 



ference in coloration. In worn summer plumage color differences are 

 more or less obscured, but in freshly molted fall specimens they are 

 readily apparent. 



There is a large series of specimens at hand from the Warner Mountains, 

 the summer home of this subspecies, but there are no winter birds or 

 migrants available indicating its range at other seasons. 



Passerella iliaca canescens, new subspecies. 



WHITE MOUNTAINS FOX SPARROW 



Type. — Immature male (in nearly complete first winter plumage); 

 no. 28439, Mus. Vert. Zool.; Wyman Creek at 8250 feet altitude, east 

 slope of White Mountains, Inyo County, California; August 15, 1917; 

 collected by A. C. Shelton; original number 3549. 



Subspecific characters. — Most nearly similar to Passerella iliaca schistacea, 

 under which name the White Mountains bird has formerly been included, 

 but differing from that race in its much more grayish coloration. 



Remarks. — This subspecies is based upon a series of twelve specimens 

 from several points in the Boreal zone on the White Mountains, in Mono 

 and Inyo counties, California. The series includes three adults in rather 

 worn summer plumage, two adults undergoing the annual molt but mostly 

 in the new winter plumage, one immature (the type) in nearly complete 

 first winter plumage, and six in juvenile plumage, some of them showing 

 a few feathers of the first winter plumage. 



Comparisons with P. i. schistacea were made with series of breeding birds 

 from northern Nevada and south central Oregon, and with migrants and 

 winter visitants from various points in California. There are no noticeable 

 differences in measurements between these two races, though, as canescens 

 is at the minimum of bill development in the species, it is possible to make 

 a selection of specimens of schistacea from certain parts of the range of 

 that subspecies, showing very much larger bills. 



The gray coloration of canescens as compared with the browner schistacea 

 is least noticeable in abraded summer plumage, but in newly acquired fall 

 plumage it is evident at a glance; in juveniles also the difference in color 

 between the two subspecies is apparent, though to a lesser degree. 



There are two winter birds at hand that appear to be referable to the 

 subspecies canescens, one from Mount Wilson, Los Angeles County, 

 California, the other from Blythe, Riverside County (on the Colorado 

 River), California. These afford as yet our only clue as to the winter 

 home of the race. 



