136 University of California Puhlications in Zoology ["^^o^. 21 



sinuosa occupies an intermediate position between these two subspecies. 

 It is of less slaty, more brownish, coloration than unalaschcensis, but 

 it is decidedly less brownish than the ruddy-colored amiectens to the 

 southward. In bill structure also it is intermediate, with bill smaller 

 than in unalaschcensis, but rather larger than in annectens. The con- 

 siderable series of sinuosa at hand from Prince William Sound includes 

 many breeding adults, some juveniles, and some adults and immatures 

 in fresh fall plumage. It is thus illustrative of age and seasonal varia- 

 tion, and there is considerable individual variation exhibited also, but 

 nothing that can be correlated with local distribution. That is, birds 

 from the several islands and from the mainland, as well as from the 

 opposite sides of the sound, are all intrinsically alike. (See Grinnell, 

 1910, p. 407.) Two adult specimens from Montague Island (nos. 1569, 

 1572, Mus. Vert. Zool.), exhibit, perhaps, the extremes, one of brown, 

 the other of gray coloration as seen in the entire series. 



Six specimens at hand from points on the Kenai Peninsula are 

 clearly referable to sinuosa. These birds, from the collection of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, were referred to by Chapman 

 (1902, p. 243; 1904, p. 404) under the' names annectens and unalasch- 

 censis, the subspecies sinuosa not having been described at that time. 



Two birds from Middleton Island (nos. 115823, 115824, U. S. Nat. 

 Mus.) appear to me to be clearly referable to sinuosa. These birds, 

 in fresh fall plumage, were taken on August 26, a date sufficiently 

 late to allow of their being perhaps wanderers from some other point, 

 though they are more probably representative of the fonn breeding 

 upon this island. They are very slightly aberrant from the mode of 

 the Prince William Sound series in that both are a trifle paler colored 

 and have distinctly more buffy under tail coverts, and that one has 

 a slightly larger bill. It is interesting to note that two winter speci- 

 mens from Echo, Eldorado County, California (nos. 88757, 88758, 

 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.) duplicate these Middleton Islands birds in 

 every particular. It is not uncommon, of couree, to find winter speci- 

 mens so different from the normal type of any of the described sub- 

 species as to be difficult to place satisfactorily, but there are only one 

 or two instances in the large series of fox sparrows here assembled 

 where such birds can be linked up with a summer habitat, as appears 

 to be the case with the two just mentioned. 



There are many winter specimens at hand from points in Califor- 

 nia, which, though referred perforce to sinuosa, exhibit among them- 



