GROSBEAKS, FINCHES, SPARROWS: Family Fringillidae [587] 



Wing 3.09-3.2.7, tail z. 90-3. 06, bill .43-. 47. Nest and eggs: Similar to those of 

 P. i. altivagans. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds on mainland of southeastern Alaska, British Colum- 

 bia, Vancouver, Washington, and northwestern Washington. Winters south to 

 central California. In Oregon: Common winter resident of entire coast and inland 

 to Portland and Willamette Valley. 



THE SOOTY Fox SPARROW was first recorded from Oregon by Swarth 

 (19x0), who listed Jewett's specimen from Marshfield taken on November 

 16, 1917. It is the common wintering form on the coast and next to 

 sinuosa the most common in the Willamette Valley. One collected by 

 D. D. Streeter, Jr., October 12., 1909, at Empire, and now in the Bio- 

 logical Survey collection, furnished the earliest fall date of which we 

 have a record. The latest spring date is of a specimen in the Carnegie 

 Museum taken at Salem, April 2.4, 1909, by M. E. Peck. There are 

 numerous skins in the Carnegie Museum collection taken at Beaverton 

 in February, March, and April, 1890, by Anthony, and skins from Blaine, 

 Clackamas County, and Tillamook have been identified for Alex Walker 

 by the Biological Survey. In our own collection we have numerous 

 specimens taken at Netarts, Tillamook, Blaine, Devils Lake, Marshfield, 

 Powers, and Gold Beach on the coast and several from the vicinity of 

 Portland. 



While in Oregon, this bird is a skulker, frequenting the salal thickets 

 on the coast and the heaviest brush patches when in the vicinity of 

 Portland. The only exception to this behavior we have noted was on 

 December 17 and 18, 192.4, when a wet and exceedingly heavy snow had 

 blanketed all the salal slopes in Tillamook County. The snow remained 

 for two days, and during that time the beaches and pasture lands swarmed 

 with Fox Sparrows and Hermit Thrushes that had been driven from 

 their accustomed haunts by the storm. As soon as the snow melted they 

 vanished again into the dense tangles of vines and shrubs that adorn the 

 hillsides in this country of abundant rainfall. 



Slate-colored Fox Sparrow: 



Passerella iliaca schistacea Baird 



DESCRIPTION. "Upper parts plain slaty or brownish gray, becoming rusty on wings, 

 upper tail coverts, and tail; under parts with chest spots smaller, more scattered; tail 

 longer than wing, bill thick. Male: length (skins) 6.13-7.16, wing 3.08-3.43, tail 

 2.. 88-3. 43, bill .44-. 50. Female: length (skins) 6. 01-6.58, wing 3.01-3.2.1, bill .45- 

 .50." (Bailey) Nest: In bushes and trees, made of plant fiber, grass, and hair. Eggs: 

 3 or 4, greenish, marked with purple and brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds in mountains of Great Basin from southeastern 

 British Columbia south to Nevada and eastern Wyoming. Winters south to Arizona, 

 New Mexico, and southern California. In Oregon: Breeds in Blue Mountain area of 

 eastern Oregon and southward through Malheur County to Nevada line on higher 

 ranges. (See Figure 19 ) 



