Vol. XXIV, pp. 251-252 December 23, 1911 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THK 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW .MELOSPIZA FROM 

 CALIFORNIA. 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



A series of song sparrows from eastern California, in the 

 Biological Survey Collection, United States National Museum, 

 appear to represent an undescribed race. Since several of these 

 specimens were obtained by Dr. A. K. Fisher, in Owen Valley, 

 California, during the Death Valley Expedition of 1891,* this 

 new form may appropriately be named 



Melospiza melodia fisherella subsp. nov. 



( 7m /*. Mtbtp. Similar to Melospiza melodia heermanni Baird, but larger; 

 upper surface paler, less rufescent; streaks on lower parts less blackish 

 ( more brownish ). 



Tape. Adult male, Xo. I'D:'.,.")!);, (". S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey 

 Collection; Honey Lake, near Million!, California, June 18, 1906; A. S. 

 Bunnell. 



Description of type. Upper surface somewhat rufescent hair brown; 

 the crown with broad lateral stripes of burnt umber, and throughout with 

 streaks of clove brown; the back and scapulars broadly streaked with 

 black and burnt umber; the rump and upper tail-coverts somewhat 

 streaked with dark brown; tail sepia, edged externally with wood brown 

 and dull russet; wing-quills grayish sepia, margined exteriorly with wood 

 brown and dull russet; superior wing-coverts mostly burnt umber, 

 margined more or less with pale hair brown, the median and greater 

 series and the tertials with terminal shaft markings of black or clove 

 brown; superciliary stripe, auriculars, and sides of neck ash gray, the 

 first mentioned paler than the others; postocular and malar stripes burnt 

 mnber; entire lower surface, including inferior wing-coverts, dull 

 white, the sides, flanks, and crissurn washed with brownish or buffy; 

 breast, jugnlum, sides, Hanks, and crissum streaked witli burnt umber 

 and clove brown. 



'Recorded by Dr. Kisher (North American Fauna No. 7, 1893, p. 100) as Melospiza 



ln'cniHiniii. 



lit I'uoc. HJOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. XXIV, 1911. (251) 



