MOUNTAIN WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW 1339 



and Hudsonian life zones and winter in the lowlands. Until they 

 were designated as a separate race in 1930 by Harry C. Oberholser, 

 they were included in the race leucophrys, although their breeding 

 range is separated from the main portion of the leucophrys range by 

 several hundred miles. In this article I include under oriantha those 

 records for leucophrys prior to 1930 that pertain to the western 

 populations. 



One of the most interesting aspects of this race in California, 

 where I observed it, is the fact that the breeding population consists 

 of a series of isolated colonies highly variable in the time they begin 

 nesting. Because the date when the snow melts enough to permit 

 birds to nest on or near the ground varies considerably from one 

 breeding locality to another, even in the same year, some populations 

 of this race begin nesting in early June, whereas others have to wait 

 until July. In fact many oriantha populations begin nesting later 

 than do Gambel's sparrows in northern Alaska. 



Another characteristic of oriantha in California is the small size 

 of many of the breeding populations. Some of the high mountain 

 meadows it inhabits are too small to support more than four or five 

 nesting pairs. Also in marginal areas minor vegetative changes, 

 such as those brought about by a series of unusually dry or wet years 

 or by the interference of man, may render a suitable locality unsuit- 

 able for nesting white-crowns, or vice versa. This may explain dis- 

 crepancies in the literature regarding the occurrence of this race, 

 such as the early reports (Merrill, 1888, E. A. Preble, MS) of white- 

 crowned sparrows breeding in the Mount Shasta and Crater Lake 

 regions, where recent attempts to find them (Farner, 1952; Banks, 

 personal communication; DeWolfe and DeWolfe, 1962) have failed. 



A third interesting fact is that, although the latitudinal range of 

 oriantha. in California is approximately the same as that of nuttalli, 

 its average clutch is significantly larger than that of the coastal form. 



Data on clutch size and egg dates for oriantha are plentiful, but 

 the literature contains almost nothing on its behavior. My own 

 observations of this race in the Sierras and Cascades during the 

 summer of 1960 include brief glimpses of territory establishment, 

 incubation, and care of nestlings, none of which show obvious dif- 

 ferences from those of the other races. I have no firsthand knowl- 

 edge of behavior in this form during fall and winter. Owing to the 

 paucity of information on the annual cycle, I present the data on 

 habits in a continuous account rather than under the subheadings 

 used for the other races. 



Records of its movements in spring and fall suggest that not only 

 does oriantha leave its wintering and breeding grounds later than does 

 gambelii, but also that, depending on local weather conditions, oriantha 



