RUSTY SONG SPARROW 1541 



birds found in September on Alt. Rainier, Washington, Jewett et al. 

 (1953) write: "It seemed to prefer the alder and huckleberry brush 

 of moist, spongy meadows, as well as willows about lake margins." 

 They add: "Coastal records of the sooty song sparrow are notably 

 scarce, though it appears to be of general occurrence in winter on the 

 islands of Puget Sound and at certain lowland localities in western 

 Washington away from the coast." Specimens have been collected 

 in Washington between Sept. 3 and Feb. 20. 



Ridgway (1901) describes rufina as being "Similar to M. c. morphna 

 but decidely larger (except bill), with coloration darker (sooty rather 

 than rusty), and more uniform above; general color of upper parts 

 deep sooty brown or bister, brightening into rusty brown or chestnut 

 on outer webs of greater wing-coverts and tertials, the back obsoletely 

 streaked with darker, and the median crown-stripe indistinct or ob- 

 solete; streaks on chest, etc., deep prouts brown." 



Distribution 



Range. — Outer islands of southeastern Alaska and of central British 

 Columbia south to western Washington. 



Breeding range. — The sooty song sparrow breeds on the outer is- 

 lands of southeastern Alaska (Chichagof to Forrester and Duke 

 islands) and of central British Columbia (Queen Charlotte Islands, 

 Porcher Island, Spider Island). 



Winter range. — Winters in breeding range (north to Sitka), ranging 

 south to western Washington (Whidbey Island, Toledo). 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA MORPHNA Oberholser 



Rusty Song Sparrow 

 Contributed by Val Nolan Jr. 



Habits 



Another race from the Pacific Northwest, M. m. morphna breeds 

 in southwest British Columbia and western Washington and Oregon. 

 Bird banders have found many wholly sedentary individuals, but 

 there is also a migratory element. The winter range reaches to 

 California and, rarely, Nevada. 



The habitat is well described by Jewett et al. (1953): "Distinctly a 

 ground bird, it prefers to hide in the brush along the bank of some 

 trickling creek, though it is often observed in dry brushy localities at 

 some distance from water, and has been noted in such diverse places 

 as weedy lots and about dooryards in towns, on the tide flats, among 

 the logs and brush of a windfall, in a log jam on a river, among stranded 



