THE MOUNTAIN SONG SPARROW. 139 



No. 55. 

 MOUNTAIN SONG SPARROW. 



A. O. U. No. 581 1). Melospiza melodia montana ( Henshaw). 



Description". — .Idiills: Crown dull bay streaked with black and divided by 

 ashy-gray median stripe; rufous brown post-ocular and rictal stripes, enclosing 

 grayish-brown auriculars; remaining upperparts ashy-gray varied by reddisli 

 brown, the gray due to broad edgings of feathers and occupying from one-half 

 to two-thirds the total area according to season, feathers of back and scapulars 

 sharp!}' streaked with blackish centrally ; wings and tail brown varied by minor 

 markings and edgings of dusky, brownish gray and ashy-gray ; below white, or 

 sordid, heavily streaked on sides of throat, breast and sides by blackish and 

 rufous, markings wedge-shaped, tear-shaped or elongated, confluent on sides of 

 throat as maxillar)' stripes and often on center of breast as indistinct blotch. Bill 

 horn-color above, lighter below : feet pale brown, toes darker; iris brown. Young: 

 Like adults but duller, all markings less sharply defined, streaks of underparts 

 narrower. Length of adult male (skins): 6.00 (150); wings 2.73 (69.3); tail 

 2.74 (69.6); bill .48 (12.2); tarsus .88 (22.4). 



Recognition Marks. — S]3arrow size; heavy streaking of breast and back, 

 with varied head iiuirkiugs, distinctive; lighter, grayer and more sharply streaked 

 as compared with jl/. ;;/. iiicnilli. 



Nesting. — As next. 



General Range. — "Rocky Mountain district of the L^nited States west to 

 and including the Sierra Nevada, in California; north to eastern C)regon, southern 

 Idaho and southern Montana ; south in winter to western Texas and northern 

 Mexico" (Ridgway). Probably also north into British Columbia and south- 

 western Alberta. 



Range in Washington. — [Migrant and winter resident along eastern borders. 



Authorities. — ? Snodgrass, Auk, XX. 1903, 207. W. T. Shaw in cpist. Dec. 

 31, 1908. Sr? 



Specimens. — P'(32 spec). 



WHETHER or not the Song Sparrows of northern IMontana and eastern 

 British Columbia are typical iiioiitaiia. the doctors must settle; but certain 

 it is that sparrows of a type decidedly lighter, that is, ashier, in coloration, 

 than our incrriUi. pass thru our eastern borders during migrations. Of such 

 a bird, examined narr(:iwl\- at vSpokane on November 4, 1905. my note-book 

 says (com]jaring at e\'ery point with uicrrilli) ; "Ashy gray and brown of 

 head strongly contrasting; ashy of Ijack and scapulars very extensive, brown 

 areas of feathers not exceeding one-third their total width; underparts clearer 

 white; streaking lighter rusty and more sharply defined, more narrow on 

 sides." 



a. Based upon that of Mclospica melodia from which it differs slightly in proportions but chiefly in 

 grayer coloration. The measurements are those of Ridgway, Birds of N. & M, A., Vol. I., p. 358. 



