1536 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part 3 



Johnston (1954), from 17 records of clutch size of unspecified 

 Alaskan races, found an average first clutch of 4.00 eggs and an average 

 second clutch of 4.33 eggs, with the mean clutch size of the sample 

 being 4.17 eggs. The nest of sanaka McGregor found, described above, 

 had three eggs, and those found by Howell contained from three to 

 five eggs. 



Young. — Swarth (1934) tells of finding families of young sanaka 

 hopping about the face of a cliff and among boulders on the shore 

 of Unalaska on June 15. 



Plumage. — This summary of descriptions of the races under con- 

 sideration is taken from the paper by Gabrielson and Lincoln (1951), 

 which described maxima and amaka and reviewed the Alaskan song 

 sparrows, and from Ridgway (1901). 



M. m. maxima: "Separable from sanaka, to which it is most nearly 

 related, by the following characters: bill slightly heavier and averaging 

 somewhat longer, especially in the males; in breeding plumage back 

 and head distinctly brownish in tone rather than grayish. This is 

 due to the wider and heavier brown stripes in the center of the feathers 

 of the back and to a darker brown color of the head. In specimens 

 of sanaka in comparable plumage, the brown feather markings are 

 narrower and more obscured, so that the general effect is an over-all 

 grayish tone of the head and back. 



"The brownish appearance also is conspicuous in the fall, * * * 

 [and] a comparable difference is noticeable in the juvenal plumage" 

 (Gabrielson and Lincoln, 1951). 



M. m. sanaka: Ridgway's (1901) description of sanaka (at that 

 date cinerea) is that the "general color above [is] olive-gray (almost 

 ash-gray in summer), the back broadly streaked with brown (usually 

 inclosing narrow blackish shaft-streaks), the pileum usually with two 

 broad lateral stripes of light Vandyke or mummy brown (these often 

 obsolete in worn summer plumage); streaks on chest, etc., varying 

 from light grayish brown to rusty brown. Young similar to the 

 young of * * * insignis, but paler above and streaks of under parts 

 grayish brown instead of sooty brown." The bird is similar to, but 

 larger and grayer than, M.m. insignis. 



M. m. amaka: "Resembles maxima from the western Aleutians in 

 color and extensive brown markings, but somewhat more heavily 

 marked with brown than that race both on back and breast * * *. 

 Closer in color to maxima than to the geographically closer race sanaka. 

 Bill short and stubby as in sanaka" (Gabrielson and Lincoln, 1951). 



M. m. insignis: "This race is somewhat smaller than sanaka and is 

 darker, with a sooty wash that noticeably obscures the markings and 

 tends to make the color more uniform. It is, however, paler and 

 grayer than [kenaiensis] * * *" (Gabrielson and Lincoln, 1951). 



