1330 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 pakt 3 



each other in several respects, no identity of the two populations is 

 implied, for despite the thousands of Gambel's sparrows banded 

 each year, none has been taken on both breeding and wintering 

 grounds, and we do not know how far a given individual travels. By 

 analogy with the Puget Sound sparrow, we should expect birds nesting 

 in the northern part of the breeding range to migrate to the southern 

 part of the wintering range. Thus it is possible that Gambel's 

 sparrows breeding at the latitude of College may winter in southern 

 California. In this connection it is interesting that a singing male 

 in breeding condition collected at College on May 6 was using a song 

 pattern identical with one of the song patterns heard in winter at 

 Santa Barbara. 



Excerpts from my field notes outline the start and progress of 

 migration as I recorded it at College in 1957. 



"August 6. Kallio, Superintendent of the University of Alaska 

 Experiment Station, reports Gambel's sparrows gathering in the 

 strawberry patch at the Experiment Station. He interprets this as 

 a sign the birds are getting ready to migrate. 



"August 10. Gambel's sparrows appear to be definitely in migra- 

 tion. They utter eep's rapidly, and occasionally sing weak, frag- 

 mentary songs. 



"August 13. After hunting along roadsides where breeding birds 

 had been common I observed that the birds behave as a winter flock. 

 They appear to be migrating. Two adults were seen in a flock of 

 about ten birds. All were furtive, shy, keeping foliage between them 

 and me. Other birds suspected of being in migration: Myrtle 

 warblers, Ruby-crowned kinglets, Savannah sparrows. 



"August 14. For the past week or so I have noticed that trapped 

 birds utter call notes when I hold them in a darkened cage. They 

 fight to escape and squirm more vigorously in my hand than they did 

 before. 



"August 15. Mr. Kallio reports that the numbers of Gambel's 

 are now markedly fewer. About a week or ten days ago he saw the 

 greatest number. 



"August 17. There are definitely fewer Gambel's sparrows than 

 on August 6 and 8. Other species flocking this a.m. : Juncos, Savannah 

 sparrows. 



"August 18. Heard only a few Gambel's sparrows. 



"August 19. At meadow between 8- and 9-mile on road to Nenana, 

 saw a flock of 18 Gambel's sparrows. No singing or uttering of loca- 

 tion or alarm notes. They perched close together. 



"August 25. 8:30 a.m. For the first time I do not see a sizable 

 group of Gambel's at the trap sites. 



