1920] Swarth: Revision of Avian Genus Passerella 141 



Remarks. — Vigors (1839, p. 19) described Fringilla meruloides, a 

 species that "was met with at Monterey" by the naturalists of H.M.S. 

 "Blossom." His description is brief, but evidently pertains to a fox 

 sparrow, and to one of the Unalaschcensis group, although it is not 

 sufficiently explicit to be pinned down to any one of the six subspecies 

 within the latter aggregation. Therefore the proper application of 

 the name meruloides rests to some extent upon outside facts, inde- 

 pendent of the written description. Vigors gives no dates of occur- 

 rence, but the time at which the "Blossom" visited Monterey, as 

 ascertained from Beechey's "narrative" (1831) was in January, and 

 again in October and November, 1827. It was undoubtedly during the 

 second visit (October 29 to November 17) that the natural history 

 collections were made, but either stay was at the proper season to find 

 fox sparrows there. No Passerella is known to breed in that region 

 (see Grinnell, 1902, p. 44). Although Vigors' description cannot be 

 used to distinguish between the several closely related subspecies 

 concerned, it so happens that at Monterey there is one particular 

 race that occurs in greater numbers than any of the others. The 

 Passerella that winters there in such abundance is, as verified by com- 

 parison of specimens, the form breeding in the Yakutat Bay region, 

 Alaska, named by Ridgway (1900, p. 30) Passerella iliaoa amiectetis. 



Collecting carried on at Monterey in December, 1901, by Grinnell 

 (1902, p. 44) resulted in the capture of but the one subspecies; exam- 

 ination of additional specimens from the same general region showed 

 these also to be of the same form. On this basis Grinnell {loc. cit.) 

 pointed out that Vigors' name, meruloides, could be used with pro- 

 priety for this subspecies, as apparently the only form occurring in 

 the region. With this view the present writer was in perfect accord 

 until a very recent date. When the writing of the present report was 

 begun there were at hand seventeen fox sparrows from the vicinity 

 of Monterey. Of these, fifteen were of the Yakutat Bay subspecies, 

 one was sinuosa and one insularis, a representation of subspecies that 

 bore out Grinnell 's assertions, above indicated. A little later, however, 

 additional material was received that put a different aspect upon the 

 matter. 



In December, 1918, Mr. H. G. White, of this Museum, spent some 

 weeks collecting birds and mammals in the immediate vicinity of 

 Monterey. As one result of his labors he sent in thirty-one fox spar- 

 rows. Of these, thirteen are of the Yakutat Bay race, sixteen are 

 sinuosa, and there is one specimen each of iliaca and megarhyncMis. 



