3Q NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



of castaneous. The white beneath much tinged with ashy; juguhim-spots blended, and 

 of a sepia-brown tint. Wing, 3.00 ; tail, 3.00 ; bill .41 from nostril, and .25 det;p at base. 

 Hab. Northwest coast, from British Columbia northward. (Sitka.) 



The above characters are those of a large scries of specimens from Sitka, 

 and "a few points along the coast to the southward and northward, and 

 rej)resent the average features of a race which is intermediate between 

 guttata and insicjnis, in appearance as well as in habitat. Tracing this 

 variety toward the Columbia Eiver, it gradually passes into the former, and 

 northward into the latter. 



We have no distinctive information relative to the habits of this race. 



Melospiza melodia, var. insignis, Baird. 



KODIAK SONG SPARROW. 



? Frinrjilla cincrca, Gmelin, I, 1788, 922 (based on Cinereous Finch, Lath. II, 274). — 

 Penn. Arc. Zool. II, 68 (Unalaschka). Emberiza cincrca, Boxap. Consp. 1850, 478. 

 Melosjnza insignis, Baird, Trans. Chicago Acad. I, ii, 1869, p. 319, pi. xxix, fig. 2. — 

 Dall & Bannister, do. p. 285. — Finsch, Abh. Nat. Ill, 1872, 44 (Kodiak). 



Sp. Char. Summer plumage (52,477 $, Kodiak, May 24, 1868). Above brownish- 

 plumbeous, outer surface of wings somewhat more brown, the greater coverts slightly 

 rufescent. Interscapulars Avith medial broad but obsolete streaks of sepia-brown ; crown 

 and upper tail-coverts with more sharply defined and narrower dusky shaft-streaks. 

 Crown without medial light line. Beneath grayish-white, much obscured by brownish- 

 plumbeous laterally. A whitish supraloral space, but no appreciable superciliary stripe ; a 

 whitish maxillary stripe ; beneath it an irregular one of dusky sepia ; irregular streaks of 

 dark grizzly-sepia on breast and along sides, blended into a broad crescent across the 

 jugulum. Wing, 3.30; tail, 3.50; bill, .48 from nostril, .28 deep at base, and .21 in the 

 middle, the middle of the culmen being much depressed, its extremity rather abruptly 

 decurved. 



Autumnal plumage (60,162, Kodiak, received from Dr. J. F. Brandt). Differs very 

 remarkably in appearance from the preceding. The pattern of coloration is everywhere 

 plainly plotted, there being a distinct vertical and sharply defined superciliary stripe. 

 Ground-color above ashy, somewhat overlaid by rusty, except on the sides of the neck. 

 Whole crown, outer surface of wings, and dorsal streaks, rusty rufous ; black streaks on 

 crown and upper tail-coverts obsolete. Beneath pure white medially, the markings rusty 

 rufous. Wing, 3.30 ; tail, 3.60 ; bill, .47 and .30. 



Hab. Kodiak and Unalaschka. 



This race represents the extreme extent of variation in the species, and it 

 would be diflicult for a species to proceed farther from the normal standard ; 

 indeed, the present bird is so different even in form, especially of bill, from 

 melodia, that, were it not for the perfect series connecting them, few natural- 

 ists would hesitate to place them in different genera. 



Habits. No information has so far been published in reference to the 

 nesting of this Sparrow, or of any peculiar habits. 



