Henshaw on Mdospiza meloda and its Allies. 159 



occur farther to the north. Thus, fall and winter specimens from 

 Nicasio, migrants from more northern localities, are noticeably inter- 

 mediate in colors between samuelis and guttata ; while during the 

 past season I obtained specimens in Oregon, at the base of the 

 eastern slope of the Cascades, — thus approximating the habitat 

 of faflax, — that hold a similar relation to that central region form, 

 the two races to the northward evidently passing by insensible 

 stages into guttata. 



Var. rvjina is simply guttata, with its peculiarities carried a step 

 or two farther, corresponding with increased latitude. The rufous 

 of guttata becomes in typical rvjfna a reddish sepia-brown ; the size 

 is somewhat larger, the bill rather more slender. Such is rvfina 

 as found about Sitka and to an uncertain distance southward. 



Upon certain, perhaps all, of the Alaskan islands occurs insignis. 

 This gigantic Sparrow is distinguished, in addition to its great size, 

 by a much paler, grader phase of color than its nearest geographical 

 neighbor, rnfina. The streaks, instead of being nearly or quite 

 obsolete as in that form, are well defined and of an umber-bi'own. 



Of insignis, Baird and Ridgway say : " Between M. melodia. of the 

 Atlantic States and M. insignis of Kodiak the difference seems wide, 

 but the connecting links in the inter-regions bridge this over so com- 

 pletely that, with a series of hundreds of specimens before us, 

 we abandon the attempt at specific separation." It needs but a 

 glance to determine that the var. rufina is nearer insignis by many 

 degrees than the meloda of the East, and, as hns been indicated, 

 nothing is wanting in the chain of evidence to establish the connec- 

 tion between rufina and meloda. But while admitting the possi- 

 bility, perhaps even probability, that the relations between insignis 

 and rufina may be as close as that of races, we feel justified in as- 

 serting that the intergradation necessary to establish this cannot be 

 shown from the material acccumulated up to the present time. 

 Measurements appended below demonstrate that between the largest 

 specimen of rnfina. in the collection and the smallest insignis there 

 is a by no means inconsiderable gap. Nor does there appear to be 

 any known law of geographical variation by which this discrepancy 

 of size can be accounted for. 



The law of increase of size with inci'eased latitude, while applying 

 to the preceding members of this group, fails of application in the 

 case of insignis ; since Sitka, the metropolis of rufina, is in the same 

 latitude with Kodiak, that of insignis ; while one specimen of rifina, 



