WESTERN SAVANNAH SPARROW 703 



gray. In fall, similar to spring plumage but coloration richer. They 

 state there is a larger degree of size variation in this race than in the 

 other western races, and cite as a case in point the fact that some 

 birds from Nunivak Island are larger than usual. They point out 

 that worn breeding specimens are separable from nevadensis only 

 with great difficulty, but the greater amount of pale or whitish 

 streaking above in nevadensis is ordinarily apparent. Peters and 

 Griscom also note a certain amount of dichromatism "since grayer 

 and browner specimens of anthinus may appear in the same series 

 from the same place, shot in the same week or even on the same day." 



As these series also included birds in fresh fall plumage, the color 

 variations were not produced by the feather wear so common in 

 breeding specimens. 



J. W. Bee (195S) noted that molt had commenced on two adult 

 males collected at Kaolak, Alaska, on July 22 and 24, 1951. 



Migration. — J. A. Munro and I. McT. Cowan (1947) state (with- 

 out reference to race) that the Savannah sparrow is a transient in 

 all of the biotic areas of British Columbia, with a particularly heavy 

 coastal migration. 



H. S. Swarth (1924) found Savannah sparrows migrating through 

 Hazelton in the Skeena River region of northern British Columbia 

 during the last week of May 1921, and during the third week of 

 August migrating Savannah sparrows swarmed through the Kispiox 

 Valley, reaching a maximum abundance about the middle of Sep- 

 tember. Migrants were still present on September 26 when he left 

 the area. 



Gabrielson and Jewett (1940) state that anthinus is an abundant 

 migrant throughout Oregon, especially in the fall, and is common in 

 the summit meadows of the Cascades as well as in the valleys through- 

 out the state. 



Jewett, Taylor, Shaw, and Aldrich (1953) have tliis to say about 

 the migi'ation of anthinus in Washington: 



The western Savannah sparrow is a common spring and fall migrant, particularly 

 in western Washington, and in larger numbers in the fall. In the spring of 1915, 

 Bowles says, the species passed through between April 21 and May 11, the spar- 

 rows being watched each day. During the fall migration of 1919, the first were 

 seen on September 2. The bulk of the migrants went through between September 

 12 and 15, with a large number on September 23 also. The birds were seen nearly 

 every day until October 22. Bowles (1920b: 109) says the -western Savannah 

 sparrow reaches Tacoma al)Out April 20 on its northward migration, remaining 

 until about May 10. Records now available seem to indicate that a principal 

 route of the fall migration of the western Savannah through Washington is along 

 the Cascade Mountains. We found this subspecies common toward the end of 

 August and early in September in the alpine parks of Mt. Rainier, where it was 

 observed in the lush grass or heather of the open Hudsonian country, or occa- 

 646-737— C8 — pt. 2 8 



