96 University of CaliforTda Publications in Zoology [Vol.21 



year. The Puget Sound song sparrow, however, is about as sedentary 

 as the fox sparrow of the same region, and, existing as it does under 

 the same conditions throughout the year, it is hard to see why it 

 should not have assumed comparable coloration.* 



The Unalaschcensis group exhibits some variation in size and shape 

 of bill, though very little in comparison with the diversity shown in 

 the Schistacea group. At the northern extreme is unalaschcensis, a 

 relatively large-billed form, to the southward, in sinuosa, the bill is 

 smaller and slenderer, and at the southern extreme, in townsendi 

 and fuliginosa, it becomes still smaller, and more stubby. 



There is, in all likelihood, continuous, or nearly continuous, dis- 

 tribution of fox sparrows along the entire northwest coast, but the 

 breeding range of the Unalaschcensis group as a whole appears to be 

 almost entirely separated from the ranges of the Iliaca and Schistacea 

 groups. At any rate, with the exception of one small series, there are 

 no breeding birds now available from intermediate stations. Accord- 

 ing to Osgood (1904, p. 76), iliaca and unalaschcensis breed within 

 one hundred miles of each other at points near the base of the Alaska 

 Peninsula, the former at Nushagak, the latter at Lake Uiamna, each 

 in typical form. In the country between these two places there is 

 stated to be "no physical barrier and no appreciable difference in 

 temperature or environment" (Osgood, loc. cit.), and a strong 

 argument is presented in favor of the specific distinction of the two 

 forms. Such a conclusion, however, is premature in the absence of 

 information relative to conditions elsewhere along the boundary line 

 between the iliaca and unalaschcensis groups. Numerous intergrades 

 have been taken in winter in California, as mentioned by Osgood. 

 Many examples of these have been available in the present study, and 

 they are not of a nature to favor the theory of their being hybrids. 



As far as is known there is an absolute hiatus between the breeding 

 ground of the southernmost of the Unalaschcensis group, fuliginosa 

 of the Puget Sound region in Washington, and the northernmost of 

 the Schistacea group, fulva in central Oregon and schistacea (presum- 

 ably) in eastern Washington. Neither is any evidence of intergrada- 

 tion apparent at these points, the most that can be said being that 



* The data for the above comments were derived partly from personal experi- 

 ence of the writer in the Sitkan district and on Vancouver Island, partly from 

 information obtained from Mr. Joseph Dixon, economic mammalogist of this 

 museum, regarding conditions at Prince William Sound, Kadiak Island, the 

 Alaska Peninsula, and Unalaska, and partly from weather reports kindly supplied 

 me by Mr. E. A. Beals, U. S. Weather Bureau, San Francisco. 



