fox sparrow: northwestern coastal 1419 



PASSERELLA ILIACA (Merrem) 



Fox Sparrow: Northwestern Coastal Subspecies* 



Contributed by Oliver L. Austin, Jr. 



Habits 



The six northwestern coastal subspecies are readily told from the 

 other fox sparrow races by their sooty coloration and uniformly 

 brown backs and tails. Their bills decrease in size and their coloring 

 darkens from northwest to southeast in an almost perfect cline. 

 Adjoining races intergrade wherever their ranges meet, and the 

 differences between some forms are so slight that the practicality of 

 such fine splitting is sometimes questioned. For instance George 

 Willett (1933) states his "personal feeling is that we are attempting 

 to recognize too many races of Passerella and that the situation 

 might be greatly clarified by uniting some of the most closely allied 

 forms." He suggests that uniting insularis and sinuosa with una- 

 laschcensis "would greatly simplify the classification of the group." 



In the same vein Gabrielson and Lincoln (1959) state: "It is not 

 possible, however, to accurately identify [the Alaskan subspecies] 

 in the field except as Fox Sparrows. All are large sparrows with 

 dark brown or grayish brown backs with very heavily streaked 

 underparts. * * * none of them save the bird of the interior [P. i. 

 zaboria] can be named subspecifically on the basis of field identifica- 

 tion. This one, however, is so distinctly colored that it can be 

 identified in the field." 



The same authors continue: 



During the breeding season in southeastern Alaska, it is one of the rather 

 difficult birds to see because, in the heavy brush, it is a master at hiding except 

 when occupying the song perch which it quickly leaves when disturbed. Unless 

 a bird desires to leave a patch of brush, it is almost impossible to drive it out, 

 as it runs about on the ground or through the lower branches almost like a mouse. 

 The same is largely true of the Fox Sparrows found at Yakutat Bay. Farther 

 to the west, however, the birds are more easily observed, due partly to the fact 

 that there is less brush in which they may hide. Fox Sparrows are exceedingly 

 common on the islands in Prince William Sound and they are not too difficult 

 to find in the more heavily wooded sections of the Kenai Peninsula which is a 

 major part of their breeding range. On Kodiak and west of that island, they 

 are relatively easy to observe. In fact, Gabrielson has never found Fox Sparrows 

 as easily seen or collected as those on Kodiak and the smaller islands to the west. 



T. IT. Bean (1882) found unalaschcensis on Little Kornushi Island 

 in company with snow buntings and pipits on top of a ridge 1,200 

 feet above sea level. Grinnell (1910) records sinuosa as the most 



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

 laschcensis (Gmelin), P. i. insularis Ridgway, P. i. sinuosa Grinnell, P. i. annectens 

 Ridgway, P. i. townsendi (Audubon), and P. i. fuliginosa Ridgway. 



