150 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 21 



author reluctantly and with a strong seiLse of dissatisfaction. They 

 are certainlj^ dark colored, but of a duller tone than in typical fuli- 

 ginosa, they are not so heavily marked below (that is, the streakings 

 are less crowded), the under tail coverts are more nearly whitish, and 

 they all have stubby bills. There are no specimens available from 

 the mainlaiid coast of British Columbia, and I have consequently no 

 knowledge of the characters of the birds of that region. The nature 

 of variation that may be assumed to exist at the outskirts of the range 

 of fuliginosa, perhaps showing intergradation between fuliginosa and 

 townsendi, perhaps between fuliginosa and altinagmis, and fuliginosa 

 and schistacea, is entirely unknown, and until series of specimens are 

 gathered from many points where such intergrades are to be looked 

 for, and the sunnner habitats of the several subspecies concerned con- 

 sequently platted in much greater detail than is now possible, there 

 is little to be gained by speculation as to the nature and origin of 

 the puzzling winter birds above described. It may be said witJi all 

 certainty, however, that the California winter visitants here included 

 under fuliginosa were not migrants from northwestern Washington 

 or Vancouver Island. With the exception of one or two specimens 

 from Humboldt Bay they do not even approach typical fuliginosa very 

 closely in appearance ; they are placed in that category because their 

 characters are such as to indicate a closer affinity to fuliginosa than 

 to any other form, and probably illustrate intergradation between 

 fuliginosa and some one of the adjacent subspecies. 



In what little is known of the summer habitat of fuliginosa there 

 are certain apparent inconsistencies of occurrence. Dawson (1909, 

 p. 152) found this subspecies breeding upon the San Juan Islands, 

 Puget Sound, but the present writer did not meet with it at the lower 

 levels of the closely adjacent southeastern portion of Vancouver 

 Island. Here it was discovered breeding in the Canadian Zone of the 

 higher mountains, from 2200 feet altitude upward. Farther north 

 on Vancouver Island, at Nootka Sound, however, it was seen at sea 

 level (Canadian Zone) (Swarth, 1912, p. 62). Wliile Dawson (1909, 

 p. 155) defines the sunnner habitat in Washington as on "the north 

 and west slopes of the Olympic Mountains, together with the islands 

 of Lower Puget Sound," a list of the birds of the Lake Crescent 

 region, Olympic Mountains, by Rathbun (1916) includes no mention 

 of Passcrella. 



The present writer collected four specimens of fuliginosa in tlie 

 summer habitat on Vancouver Island. Three are in juvenal plumage. 



