TUCSON SONG SPARROW 1559 



San Cleraente Song Sparrow (M. m. clementae) 



Range. — The San Clemente song sparrow is resident on Santa Rosa, 

 Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and San Clemente islands off the coast of 

 southern California. 



Casual record. — Casual on the California mainland (Santa Barbara). 



Santa Barbara Song Sparrow (M. m. graminea) 



Range. — The Santa Barbara song sparrow is resident on Santa 

 Barbara Island, Los Angeles County, California. 



Coronados Song Sparrow (M. m. coronatorum) 



Range. — The Coronados song sparrow is resident on the four islands 

 of Los Coronados group off northern Baja California. 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA FALLAX (Baird) 



Tucson Song Sparrow 

 Contributed by Robert William Dickerman 



Habits 



The pale reddish desert song sparrow race, fallax, is a resident of 

 riparian and marsh associations at low to moderate elevations from 

 extreme southeastern Nevada and extreme southwestern Utah south- 

 wards to central Sonora. In the period before the introduction of 

 cattle, the rivers of central Arizona had lush bottomlands that sup- 

 ported beaver marshes and their attendant wildlife. Trapping by 

 man, overgrazing by cattle, and, most recently, the demand for irriga- 

 tion water have reduced the major portions of these rivers to dry 

 eroded beds. As a result, some populations of fallax are extinct 

 (those of the Santa Cruz River and of sections of the San Pedro and 

 Salt Rivers) and others much reduced. The largest populations are 

 now found along the Salt River above Tempe at Coon Bluff and in 

 marshes along the Gila River near Palo Verde, both locations in 

 Maricopa County. 



Allan R. Phillips (1943) described a subspecies bendirei from the 

 Salt River at Tempe Butte, Maricopa County, Ariz., as a population 

 intermediate between fallax and saltonis. Later, when it was realized 

 that saltonis migrates regidarly to southeastern Arizona, the type of 

 bendirei was reexamined and proved to be a fresh-plum aged migrant 

 of saltonis. Examination of a large series of fresh-plumaged birds 

 from Arizona and Sonora has revealed no positive geographic variation 

 within the population here considered fallax. 



J. T. Marshall, Jr., and W. H. Behle (1942) describe the habitat of 

 song sparrows in the Virgin River valley as "the vicinity of cattail 



