HOST RELATIONS OF PARASITIC COWBIRDS 167 



dall and A. D. Henderson wrote me of at least seven parasitized nests 

 in Alberta. 



The records from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba refer to 

 the race artemisiae of the cowbird; the others, to ater. 



Fox Sparrow 

 Passer ella iliaca (Merrem) 



The fox sparrow is an infrequent victim of the brown-headed cow- 

 bird. Only in one place has anj^one considered it a common host; 

 Saunders (1911, p. 40) wrote that in Gallatin County, Montana, 

 "Mr. Thomas found the eggs and young quite commonly in the nests 

 of the Slate-colored Sparrow." Ridgway (1887, p. 501) recorded a 

 parasitized nest at Parley's Park, Wasatch Mountains, Utah, on 

 June 23, 1869. The late J. H. Bowles wrote me years ago that a 

 friend of his collected several sets of fox sparrow eggs with cowbird 

 eggs near Spokane, Washington. Bendire (1889, p. 113) noted a 

 cowbird's egg in a fox sparrow's nest at Palouse Falls, southeastern 

 Washington, on June 18, 1878. Street (Houston and Street, 1959, 

 p. 176) found another parasitized nest at Nipawin, Saskatchewan. 

 J. B. Hurley (in litt.) found a nest with 2 eggs of the sparrow and 1 

 of the cowbird, five miles southeast of Sesters, Deschutes County, 

 Oregon, on May 16, 1960. In the collections of the Santa Barbara 

 Museum of Natural History there is a parasitized set of eggs collected 

 on June 9, 1922, at Mammoth Lakes, Mono County, California. 



These few records are all that I have noted. They refer to the 

 northwestern race of the cowbird, M.a. artemisiae, and to the following 

 races of the fox sparrow: zaboria in Saskatchewan; olivacea in Wash- 

 ington; schistacea in Gallatin County, Montana; swarthi in the 

 Wasatch Mountains, Vtah;fulva in Oregon; and monoensis in Mono 

 County, California. 



Lincoln's Sparrow 

 Melospiza lincolnii (Audubon) 



This sparrow has been recorded as a cowbird victim only a small 

 number of times. S. S. Stansell, A. D. Henderson, and T. E. Randall 

 informed me independently of parasitized nests, six in number, which 

 they had found in Alberta. Dr. Ian McTaggert Cowan wrote me of 

 a parasitized nest found at Elk Island Park, Alberta, the notes on 

 which are in the files of the University of British Columbia. The 

 late J. H. Bowles wrote me that he had in his collection a parasitized 

 set of eggs taken at Kalevala, Manitoba, on June 6, 1920. G. Ban- 

 croft informed me of set found in Monroe County in northern New 

 York on June 1, 1903. Street (Houston and Street, 1959, p. 195) 

 found a nest at Nipawin, Saskatchewan, on June 3, containing only 



630590—63 12 



