62 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 10 



Melospiza lincolni gracilis (Kittlitz) 

 Forbush Sparrow 



Surprisingly rare. This species should occur as a common 

 migrant throughout the region, but it was encountered by us on 

 only two occasions. Miss Kellogg secured an adult male at 

 Parksville on April 26 (no. 16246), and I shot an immature male 

 in lirst winter plumage, at Errington, on September 11 (no. 

 16247). These are indistinguishable from comparable Alaskan 

 specimens. 



Passerella iliaca fuliginosa Ridgway 

 Sooty Pox Sparrow 



Encountered at just two of our collecting stations and in very 

 limited numbers. Evidently breeding in the mountains south of 

 Alberni. They were seen and heard singing on the brush-covered 

 slopes surrounding the Golden Eagle and King Solomon basins, 

 and a few were noted in the willow thickets along the creek 

 bottom, but they never ventured into the dense forests below. 

 On Mount Douglas. July 14—16. several were heard singing in the 

 brush just below the ridge. They were very shy. and clung to 

 the thickets of dense underbrush, so that it was difficult to get 

 sighl of one. Singing birds were usually perched on a projecting 

 branch, about the center of an impenetrable thicket of salmon- 

 berry or alder, into which they plunged at the first intimation of 

 danger. 



At Xootka Sound, the only other place where they were ob- 

 served, ;i few were seen at the head of the Tahsis Canal, and also 

 at Friendly Cove. Although at every opportunity special efforts 

 were made to obtain specimens, I succeeded in killing only four 

 birds, two males in juvenal plumage, at the Golden Eagle Basin, 

 •Inly ]:] (nos. 16251, 16252), and two females at Friendly Cove, 

 one i no. 16254, August 10) in juvenal plumage, the other (no. 

 L6253, August 4) in first winter plumage. It is rather singular 

 that none was seen on the east side of the island, where it might 

 be expected to occur, at least as a common migrant. 



There is some variation in the three juvenals, one of them 

 being appreciably darker than the other two, but all three are 



