124 University of California PiCblications in Zoology [Vol. 21 



be placed with altivagans, as now defined. From a style that may 

 be taken as typical of the subspecies, the mode of coloration most 

 frequently seen — pale reddish back, obsoletely streaked with darker 

 red, and underparts moderately streaked — there are two extremes of 

 variation. One is darker colored, dark reddish brown above, heavily 

 marked below, the other predominantly grayish above and but sparsely 

 spotted on the breast. These specimens I take to represent various 

 degrees of intergradation, the reddish colored birds, toward the coastal 

 subspecies of the Unalaschcensis group (as shown in the McGillvary 

 Creek series), the grayish colored ones toward iliaca. It will be noted 

 in these non-typical birds as well as in typical altivagans, that tail 

 is always shorter than wing, as is the case in all fox sparrows outside 

 the Schistacea group. There are a few apparent intergrades of another 

 type, of duller, less reddish coloration and with tail of about the same 

 length as wing. These I take to represent intermediate stages between 

 altivagans and schistac&a. 



Of a series of nine specimens taken by W. M. Pierce in certain 

 caiions near Claremont, southern California, during the winter of 

 1918-19, practically all are variants from typical altivagams, appar- 

 ently tending toward some of the darker colored coastal races. One of 

 these birds (no. 1776, col. W. M. Pierce) is closely similar to one of 

 the summer specimens from McGillvary Creek, British Columbia. 



Compared with the subspecies of the Schistacea group, altivagans 

 is apparently always distinguishable by the proportionate lengths of 

 wing and tail, wing longer than tail in altivagans, rarely the same 

 length, wing usually shorter than tail, in all members of the Schistacea 

 group. In the occasional variant of altivagans in which coloration 

 somewhat closely approaches some examples of schistacea, the wing 

 and tail measurements suffice for identification. In typical altivagans 

 the spots on the lower surface are more ruddy than in the Unalasch- 

 censis group, and rather less thickly distributed, leaving more white 

 showing through where the spots are thickest, and more extensive pure 

 white areas on throat and belly. 



It is quite possible that the name altivagans as now used covers 

 a composite of several recognizable subspecies, as was the case in the 

 former " niegarhynchus" and "schistacea." The breeding birds 

 available are few in numbers and from but two or three scattered 

 points, while as regards the greater part of the interior of the vast 

 northwest nothing is known of the Passerella population. In view of 



