224 Henshaw on a Nezv Song Sparrotv. [J"'y 



other I propose to describe as new. An examination of the 

 type, to ascertain to which form the name_/a//a^ applies, reveals 

 the fact that the type oi fallax is from Tucson, and that it repre- 

 sents the fall plumage of what is really the older though least known 

 form. In other words, the name fallax is to be restricted to the 

 form inhabiting our southern border — Arizona and New Mexico 

 — leaving the bird of the Great Basin at large outside of Arizona 

 and New Mexico to receive the new name. The following is a 

 description of the form : — - 



Melospiza fasciata montana, var. nov. Mountain Song 



Sparrow. 



J Adult (No. II222, Coll. National Museum, Fort Bridger, Utah, June 

 i8) : Crown, occiput, rump, and exterior surface of wings umber-brown ; 

 crown striped medially with ashj gray ; sides of neck, nape, and super- 

 ciliary stripe ashy ; feathers of dorsum black centrally, umber-brown 

 exteriorly, making strongly marked longitudinal streaks ; feathers on 

 back margined more or less with gray. Tail-feathers above light umber- 

 brown, much darker along the shaft. Tertiaries margined externally with 

 whitish. Under parts grayish white ; breast and sides streaked heavily 

 with dark umber-brown ; a heavy sub-malar stripe of same tint. 



Differential Characters: — M. montana. Above umber-brown 

 with mai-gins of feathers gray, giving a strong grayish aspect to the 

 plumage; back streaked with blackish brown ; streakings below blackish 

 brown. 



M. fallax. Above chiefly bright reddish brown; back streaked with a 

 darker shade of the same; streaks below reddish, not black; size smaller. 



Fall specimens of montana are browner, with the markings 

 generally less distinct, i. e., more difiused. The black streaks of 

 the back are always present. 



The geographical limits of fallax., as restricted, cannot at 

 present be given. I have seen specimens from Camp Grant and 

 the Gila River, Arizona, while about Tucson it is the common 

 form. It probably occupies in summer almost the whole of 

 Arizona and New Mexico. 



Concerning the presence of the two forms about Tucson, Mr, 

 Nelson writes, under date of March iS, that the local race (/. ^., 

 fallax^ had been in full song for over a month, and dissection 

 reveals every evidence of the near approach of the breeding 

 season. The other bird (/. e., montana) had already left for the 

 north without singing, and without exhibiting signs of sexual 

 excitement. 



It thus appears that about Tucson tnontana is a winter visitant 

 only, while fallax is a constant resident. 



