NUTTALL'S WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW 1313 



sparrows use a more complex pattern. With practice, however, one 

 can use the same system here too. Behavior of the adults also gives 

 valuable clues. NuttaU's sparrows tend to stay paired on their 

 territories, are bold, and sing with considerable force in fall and winter. 

 Puget Sound sparrows winter in large flocks, are more easily frightened, 

 and sing with less force. In short, the adult NuttaU's sparrows behave 

 like the permanent landowners they are, whereas the Puget Sound 

 sparrows behave like visitors without attachment to a specific piece 

 of ground. Distinctions of behavior do not apply to the immatures, 

 for those of both races flock in fall and winter. With experience, 

 however, one can usually distinguish between the song fragments 

 uttered by NuttaU's and Puget Sound young of the year. 



Trained observers can make the previous distinctions at close range 

 and in a good light even with the naked eye. An additional character 

 can be used with trapped birds — the color of the bend of the wing. 

 It is bright yellow in adults and immatures of nuttalli-pugetensis, and 

 whitish or only faintly yellowish in gambelii-oriantha-leucophrys. 

 The point to emphasize is that whenever feasible, the individual 

 should be examined for all these characters. In most cases the yellow 

 bill and bend of wing and the brown back and rump feathers will 

 occur together; likewise the cinnamon-brown bill and the reddish and 

 gray back feathers and grayish rump will coexist in the same indi- 

 vidual. In exceptional cases, however, one of these characters may 

 be combined with those of the other group. I trapped one adult in 

 early spring at Berkeley that had the bright yellow wing bend charac- 

 teristic of nuttalli-pugetensis and the cinnamon-brown bill and reddish 

 and gray back feathers and grayish rump of the second group. 



As has been said, lore color can be used to separate typical Gambel's 

 sparrows from the two other races of the second group, but the dif- 

 ference does not hold for all individuals. A number of museum speci- 

 mens I have examined have loral areas partly white and partly black. 

 Obviously the race to which such individuals belong cannot be deter- 

 mined by tliis character. As with nuttalli and pugetensis, the mor- 

 phological distinctions between oriantha and leucophrys are slight, and 

 identification requires comparison with large series of museum sldns. 

 Here again song pattern may be a more reliable criterion where two 

 or three races winter together. I have no first-hand knowledge of the 

 song patterns of leucophrys, but Otto Widmann (1911) states: "To 

 one accustomed to the song of the species in the East the song of this 

 Ilocky Mountain bird is a great surprise, for it has no resemblance at 

 all, only one note at the beginning to the monotonous ditty reminding 

 one of the much more powerful and melodious song which we hear 

 every May in the Mississippi Valley." 



