516 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ON T^VO IIITEfERTO lIVIVAlflEO MPARROM'!^ FRO.ll THE < OAST OF 



CAI.IFORIVDA. 



By ROBERT RIDO\¥AY. 



The so-called Passerculua anthinus of authors (but uot of Bonaparte) 

 includes two quite different birds, one of which is a very dark-colored 

 form of P. sandivichensis, confined to the salt marshes about San Fran- 

 ciso Bay, while the other apparently belongs exclusively to similar 

 localities along the coast south of San Francisco, especially about San 

 Diego and Santa Barbara, but also extending for an undetermined dis- 

 tance to the northward and southward of these localities. So far as we 

 know, the southern limit, during spring or summer, of the last mentioned 

 form is San Quentin Bay, Lower California, * while I have seen no 

 tyi)ical examples from north of Santa Barbara. The material in hand 

 is not sufficient to determine the status of the San Diego and Santa 

 Barbara bird, many of the specimens being in winter plumage — a consid- 

 erable proportion of them evidently young. In these obscurely colored 

 streaked sparrows the greatest care should be taken in forming an opin- 

 ion t!S to the relationships of allied forms, since, if immature and winter 

 specimens are placed on an equal footing with adults in perfect plum- 

 age, in making com[)arisons, the real distinctions become confused and 

 the difficulties of the case thereby increased. My own impression, at 

 the present moment, after a careful comparison of the series before me 

 (52 specimens of both forms), is that they both represent specializations 

 of the widely distributed and very "])lastic" P. sandwicheima. This is 

 almost certainly the case with the more northern form (hnjanti), but the 

 southern one {beldingi) is so very different in its appearance as to con- 

 vey at once, in the case of spring and summer birds, the impression of 

 a decidedly distinct species. It is not so much this fact, however, as 

 the consideration that Mr. Beldiug and Mr. Heushaw, both of whom 

 have made an intimate acquaintance with the bird in life, have ex- 

 pressed their decided opinion as to its specific distinctuess,t that I here 

 describe it under a binomial title, as — 

 Fasserculus beldingi, sp. nov. 



Pasaerculus anthinus, Cooper, Orn. Cal. I. 1870, 183 (part; spec, ex San 



Diego).— EiDGW. Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 194 (pt.). — Belding, Proc. 



U. S. Nat. Mus. vol. .'>, 1883, 528 (San Quentin Bay, Low. Cal.). 

 Fasserculus savanna xdT. anthinus, CouES, Key, 1872, 136 (part); Check List, 



1873, no. 159«.— B. B. & R. Hist. N. Am. B. I. 1874, 539 (part).— Hensh. 



Orn. Wheeler's Exp. 1876, 240 (Santa Barbara, June, July). 

 Fasserculus savanna anthinus, Streets, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 7, 1877, 9 



(Todos Santos I., Lower Cal.). 

 Fasserculus sandvicensis anthinus, CouES, 2d Check List, 1882, no. 228 (pt.); 



2d Key, 1884, 363 (pt.). 



*Dr. T. H. Streets obtained a specimen at Todos Santos Island, near the southern 

 extremity of the peninsula, but no information is given, either ou the label or in his 

 paper, as to the date. It seems, however, to be in winter plumage. 



f I would add that Mr. Henshaw entertained a contrary opinion before his recent 

 visit to the coast of Southern California, where he collected many specimens. 



