1424 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part s 



Sooty Fox Sparrow (P. i. fuliginosa) 



Range. — Southeastern Alaska (mainland) to central coastal 

 California. 



Breeding range. — The sooty fox sparrow breeds from the mainland 

 coast of southeastern Alaska (south from the mouth of the Stikine 

 River) and the coastal districts of British Columbia, exclusive of the 

 Queen Charlotte Islands, south to northwestern Washington (Destruc- 

 tion Island, Lopez Island). 



Winter range. — Winters from southeastern British Columbia 

 (Comox, Vancouver) south in coastal areas to central coastal Cali- 

 fornia (Palo Colorado Creek, Morro) ; casually to interior and southern 

 California (Manzanita Lake, Los Angeles, San Antonio Canyon). 



PASSERELLA ILIAGA (Merrem) 



Fox Sparrow: Western Mountain Subspecies* 

 Contributed by Oliver L. Austin, Jr. 



Habits 



In these nine races the tail is at least (rarely) equal to and usually 

 longer than the wing. Grays predominate in their coloration, 

 increasingly so from north to south, and the rather pale uniform 

 gray head and back contrasts with the dull reddish-brown wings and 

 tail. The spots and streaks of the underparts are dull. The bill is 

 large and somewhat swollen, increasingly so from east to west in the 

 California forms. As noted elsewhere, many of these subspecies are 

 weakly differentiated from one another, and identifying specimens 

 taken away from the breeding grounds is a task for the expert with 

 good series of breeding material at hand for comparison. 



In Oregon Charles E. Bendire (1889) found that schistacea seems 

 "to prefer the willows and rose thickets along the streams in the more 

 open country, but is generally most abundant close to the foot-hills 

 of the mountains." In Montana Aretas A. Saunders (1911) found 

 the same race prefers "the thickest and most impenetrable" willow 

 thickets in the valleys. In northern Nevada Walter P. Taylor 

 (1912) reports them common in the Transition life zone, especially 

 on "rocky slopes, covered with chinquapin and quaking aspen thickets, 

 with a sparse intersprinkling of mountain mahogany and timber 

 pine." He also found them with white-crowned sparrows and 



*The following subspecies are discussed in this section: Passerella iliaca 

 schistacea Baird, P. i. olivacea Aldrich, P. i. swarthi Behle and Selander, P. i. 

 canescens Swarth, P. i. fulva Swarth, P. i. megarhyncha Baird, P. i. brevicauda 

 Mailliard, P. i. monoensis Grinnell and Storer, and P. i. slephensi Anthony. 



