MENDOCINO SONG SPARROW 1545 



Distribution 



Range. — Southwestern British Columbia to northern California. 



Breeding range. — The rusty song sparrow breeds from southwestern 

 British Columbia (Alert Bay, Chilliwack) south through western 

 Washington (Tatoosh Island, Longmire) to southwestern Oregon 

 (North Santiam River at 3,400 feet, Grants Pass, Wedderburn). 



Winter range. — Winters chiefly in the breeding range, extending 

 south to northern California (Paicines, Snelling), rarely to southern 

 California (Riverside, Yaqui Wells) and western Nevada (Fallon). 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA CLEONENSIS McGregor 



Mendocino Song Sparrow 

 Contributed by Val Nolan Jr. 



Habits 



This permanent resident of the coastal districts of the extreme 

 southwest corner of Oregon and of three counties of northern Cali- 

 fornia inhabits a variety of low dense cover, listed by Grinnell and 

 Miller (1944) as "blackberry patches, ceanothus clumps, bracken, 

 weeds and brush-piles in logged or burned-over land, pasture fence- 

 row tangles, baccharis brush, willow thickets, and fresh- and salt- 

 water marshes. Within the narrow coastal range of this race 

 prevailing fogs and rain supply amply the moisture requirements of 

 Song Sparrows even in cover some distance from streams or marshes. 

 Undergrowth in forests is generally not occupied, the birds apparently 

 seeking brush in openings and at forest edges." Walter K. Fisher 

 (1902), commenting on the abundance of the bird, writes that it 

 "fairly swarms in some places, and is the commonest bird in de- 

 forested areas." 



Ridgway (1901) describes cleonensis as being "similar in size and 

 proportions to M. m. samuelis, but averaging slightly smaller with 

 larger legs and feet, and coloration very different, being much more 

 rufescent; general color of upper parts deep rusty olive, conspicuously 

 and broadly streaked on back, etc., with dark rusty brown, or chest- 

 nut, and black; streaks on chest, etc., dark rusty brown or chestnut 

 (black medially), and sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts strongly 

 fulvous." 



Distribution 



Range. — The Mendocino song sparrow is resident in the coastal 

 district of extreme southwestern Oregon (mouth of Pistol River) and 



C46-737 — 68 — pt. 3 20 



