710 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 2 



hind neck broadly black-streaked on a ground of pale clay color; 

 feathers of dorsum with broad coal-black central areas margined 

 with whitish; tippings of wing coverts and edgings of inner wing 

 quills broadly whitish; edgings of wings, scapulars, and tail, clay 

 color. 



He summarizes by stating that nevadensis differs from its pre- 

 sumably nearest relatives in its extremely pale coloration. This 

 paleness is not due to less black-streaking, but to a replacement of 

 buff and clay color by white or whitish, and to a restriction and di- 

 lution to clay color of the hazel areas on each feather. He considers 

 the appearance of white edges on the rectrices an incipient mani- 

 festation of the condition among certain terrestrial birds where the 

 outer rectrix on either side is chiefly white, as in Pooecetes. 



Food. — G. F. Knowlton (1950) analyzed the stomach contents of 

 14 specimens of neoadensis taken in Utah. Recognizable insect 

 food consisted of: 1 Orthoptera (grasshopper) ; 50 Homoptera (clover 

 and beet leafhoppers, pea and European grain aphids) ; 39 Hemiptera 

 (lygus and damsel bugs, false chinch bugs); 28 Coleoptera (chryso- 

 melid leaf beetles-adults and larvae, alfalfa and pea weevils) ; 8 Lep- 

 idoptera (all larvae plus 17 eggs); 15 Diptera (chironomids) ; 4 Hyme- 

 noptera (ants). In addition, numerous insect fragments and 136 

 weed seeds were recognized. 



Migration and winter. — F. M. Bailey (1928) says that in New 

 Mexico nevadensis is an abundant fall migrant, common by the first 

 of September and ranging between 5,000 feet at Apache and Cactus 

 Flat and 10,500 feet near Costilla Pass. Most of the bhds leave in 

 October. 



In the Navaho country of southeastern Utah and northeastern 

 Arizona, Woodbury and Russell (1945) found nevadensis a sparse 

 winter visitor and a migrant, with an increase in the population in 

 late August and September. 



While the bulk of the population winters west of the Mississippi, 

 and therefore migrates almost due south from the breeding grounds, 

 there appears to be a small but apparently regular movement to the 

 southeast. Lowrey (1947) in reviewing some recent Savannah spar- 

 row specimens collected in Louisiana, showed that about 6 percent 

 of the 107 specimens were referable to nevadensis. Norris and Hight 

 (1957) had similar results in South Carolina, where 6 percent of the 

 559 wintermg Savannah sparrows examined were nevadensis. In 

 a later reanalysis of these, plus additional data from the same area, 

 Norris (1960) showed that nevadensis comprised 4 percent of the total 

 sample of the 1,758 wintering Savannah sparrows examined. 



Little information is available concerning the spring migration. 

 J. Grinnell (1923a) recorded a moderate number of nevadensis mingling 



