482 ORNITnOLOGY. 



y. fallax. 



Zouotrichia fallax, Baird, Pr. Ac. Niit. Sci. Phihi., 1854, 119. 



Mehspisa fallax, Bated, B. N. Am., 1858, 481; ed. 1860, 481, pi. 27, fig. 2; Cat. 



N. Am. B., 1859, No. 307.— Cooper, Oru. Cal., I, 215. 

 Melonpiza melodia var. fallax, CouES, Key, 1872, 139; Check List, 1873, No. 



169a.— B. B. i& R., Hist. N. Am. B., II, 1874, 22, pi. xxvii, fig. 10.— IIen- 



SHAW, 1875, 281. 

 Mdospiza melodia. a. fallax, CouES, B. N.W., 1874, 139. 



S. guttata. 



Fringllla {Pa.i.sen-lla) guttata, NuTTALL, Man., I, 2tl ed., 1840, 581. 



Melosplza melodia var. guttata, CouES, Key, 1872, 139 ; Check List, 1873, No. 



lG9b.— B. B. & II., Hist. N. Am. B., II, 1874, 27, pi. xxvii, fig. 12. 

 Melospiza melodia. f. guttata, CouES, B. N.W., 1874, 139. 

 '^Mdospiza rufina," Baird, B. N. Am., 1858, 480; Cat. N. Am. B., 1859, No. 360. 



[Not Emberiza rufina, Brandt, \^'iQ,=^ Melospiza rujina.] 



Speaking of its different races collectively, the Song Sparrow is a 

 widely-distributed l^ird. The race known as M. heermanni was very com- 

 mon in the thickets at Sacramento, and also throughout western Nevada, 

 its eastern limit being, apparently, the West Humboldt Mountains, where 

 the M. fallax began to replace it ; the latter being the only form found 

 thence to the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains of Utah. The more nortli- 

 ern M. guttata was encountered only in the range above mentioned, where 

 a very few individuals were found in the month of October, in the sheltered 

 canons of the eastern slope. Since Zonotrichia coronata was met with in the 

 same locality, it is likely that, as in the case of the latter species, they were 

 not residents, but migrants from the northwestward. Whatever the race, 

 however, the liabits, and, so far as we could judge, the notes also, were 

 nearly tlie same, the geographical modifications in these respects being by 

 no means in proportion to tliose of form and plumage. 



The Song Sparrow was found to be most partial to the dense thickets 

 along streams or in the \ iciuity of other bodies of water, and was conse- 

 quently most frequently seen in the lower valleys ; indeed, we have no 

 recollection of having observed it at a greater elevation than the meadow- 

 like parks of the Wahsatch Mountains, where the var. fallax was abundant 

 among' the willows bordering; the streams, alonsr with Passerella schistacea. 



