THE TOWNSEND SPARROW. 151 



Coast: and that tlie varying conditions of rainfall and temperature, to which 

 tlie birds have been subjected thruout the greater portion of the year, Iiave 

 given rise to five recognizable forms of the Townsend Sparrow. 



Probably all forms are migratory, but the northernmost member of the 

 group, the Shumagin Fox Sparrow (P. i. iiiialaschcnsis) has not been taken 

 except in its summer home, the Alaska Peninsula, Unalaska, and the Shu- 

 magins. The remaining four are kmiwn to retire in winter as far south as 

 California; but whether they preserve the 2, 3, 4, 5, arrangement in winter, 

 or whether the order is roughly reversed (as is true in the case of certain 

 other species), so that number 2 goes farthest south, while number 5, less 

 anxious as to the se\erities of winter, migrates, as it were, half-heartedly, 

 and becomes for a time the northernmost form, we cannot tell. However 

 this may be, Townsend's Sparrow proper (P. i. toxvnscndi) appears to out- 

 number any of the remoter forms during at least the spring migrations: and 

 because it is our next neighbor on the north, should be entitled to more 

 consideration than plain heathen birds. 



At no time does the al)sorpti\-c power of our matchless Pugel vSound 

 cover ap])ear to greater advantage than during the migration of the Fox 

 Sparrows. However they may choose to move at night, by day they frequent 

 the dense tangles of salal and salmon brush, or skulk about in cedar swamps. 

 To search for them is useless, but if you are much out-of-doors the time 

 will come, while you are footing it softly along some woodland patli, that 

 a demure bn_)wn liird will hojj out in front of you and look vmconcernedly 

 for tid-bits before your very eyes. The bird is a little larger tlian a Song 

 Sparrow, but you will require a second glance to note that the colors of the 

 upperparts are smoothly blended, that the head lacks the vague stripiness 

 of Mclospiza. and that the underparts are spotted instead of streaked. Or, 

 it may be, that you chance upon him as he is busily scratching among the 

 fallen alder leaves. Scratching is hardly the word t!io, for the bird leaps 

 forward and executes an extravagant doulile kick backward, landing in- 

 variably at the tdgQ of the cleared space. Here, without a moment's delay, 

 lie proceeds to glean Ijusily, whereas you rather expected him to pause at 

 the end of his stunt, like the acrobat, awaiting the conventional burst of 

 applause. H you must needs pursue the path, he hops back into tlie tlu'ckct 

 and you have seen, perhaps, your last Fox Sparrow for tliis year, alllio liis 

 migr;iting kinsmen must number millions. • 



