350 The Ohio Journal of Science [Vol. XIX, No. 6, 



Islands, central western Lower California. Winters on the 

 coast and islands of western Lower California, south to Cape 

 San Lucas, and to La Paz in southeastern Lower California; 

 and north along the Pacific Coast to Los Angeles County, 

 California. 



Remarks. — The present form is now seen to be somewhat 

 smaller than Passercnlus rostratus rostratus, but there is much 

 individual variation in this as in other respects, so much, 

 in fact, that all the differences between these two forms are 

 fully covered; and consequently Passerculus rostratus guttatus 

 is certainly but a subspecies of Passerculus rostratus rostratus, 

 though a very distinct one. 



The bird described by Mr. Ridgway as Passerculus sanc- 

 torum^, from vSan Benito Island, off the western coast of 

 Lower California, has commonly been considered a different 

 subspecies, and Mr. William Brewster has indorsed this view 

 in his careful study of the specimens obtained by Mr. M. 

 Abbott Frazar in the Cape region of Lower California.! A 

 re-examination, however, of the types of Passerculus rostratus 

 guttatus and Passerculus rostratus sanctorum, together with a 

 large amount of new material, particularly from the San 

 Benito Islands, shows that they certainly belong to one and 

 the same form. The type of Passerculus rostratus guttatus 

 is a winter bird of rather unusually dark coloration and is 

 possibly a bird of the year. One of the two original specimens 

 of Passerculus rostratus sanctorum Ridgway has the bill prac- 

 tically as slender as the type of Passerculus rostratus guttatus} 

 in fact, there is much more difference in this respect between 

 the type and paratype (No. 70637, U. S. Nat. Mus.) of Passer- 

 culus rostratus sanctorum than between the type of Passerculus 

 rostratus sanctorum and the type of Passerculus rostratus 

 guttatus. Furthermore, Passerculus rostratus sanctorum is darker, 

 much more grayish (less brownish) in fresh autumn and winter 

 plumage than in the spring and summer. Accordingly, a 

 series of freshly molted specimens from San Benito Island, 

 collected on September 7, S, and 9, 1896, so closely resemble the 

 type of Passerculus rostratus guttatus that they must be the same. 

 One of these individuals (No. 153975, U. S. Nat. Mus.), taken 

 on September 9, 1896, is as good a match for the type of Passer- 



* Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V. April 3, 1883, p. 538. 



t Cf. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., XLI, No. 1, September, 1902, pp. 139-141. 



