1920] Swarth: Revision of Avian Genus Passerella 155 



he applies the name megarhynchus to birds from Fort Tejon (1858, 

 p. 925), and specifically mentions the Platte River specimen as the 

 type of scMstacea. 



Judging from the variation exhibited by the birds assembled for 

 this study, it seems possible that the name schistacea, even as here 

 restricted, covers a composite of two or more recognizable subspecies. 

 That such is the case, however, is not capable of proof by the exam- 

 ination either of winter birds alone, or of the few summer birds avail- 

 able, which represent but a limited number of localities. The general 

 summer range of schistacea consists of many scattered high mountain 

 localities, more or less widely separated, and it would not be surpris- 

 ing should some of the isolated colonies thereon prove to be as dis- 

 tinguishably different from normal schistacea as is canescens. 



The rather extensive series of summer specimens from the Pine 

 Forest Mountains, Nevada, are apparently similar in character to the 

 type specimen of schistacea and to summer birds from the vicinity of 

 Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Schistacea, proper, is thus primarily a bird 

 of the Great Basin. Birds of this type are of distinctly brownish 

 coloration, as compared with co/riescens (both adults and juvenals), 

 and, in the extreme of differentiation from that race, have a notably 

 longer, more slender pointed bill. In midsummer plumage the pres- 

 ence of the brown coloration is usually obscured by wear and fading, 

 but molting birds from the Pine Forest Mountains show it unmistak- 

 ably in the new-coming feathers. Most California winter taken speci- 

 mens are evidently of this same type, slender-billed, and more brown 

 of color than canescens. There is a small proportion of skins, from 

 various scattered localities, that have this brown coloration carried 

 to an extreme, nearly as much so as in some of the Unalaschcensis 

 group, from which, however, they are readily distinguished by other 

 characters. The capture of one of these extremely rufescent birds at 

 Anthony, Baker County, Oregon (October 11), suggests the possibility 

 of the summer habitat of this type lying somewhat farther to the 

 northward, or perhaps it is an indication of intergradation between 

 schistacea and altivagans. In support of this supposition attention 

 may be drawn to a series of summer birds from Banff, Alberta (coll. 

 Victoria Mem. Mus.). As compared with the Pine Forest Mountains 

 series, the Banff birds are much more heavily marked below, and of 

 appreciably browner coloration. One specimen in particular (no. 

 1175) is notably rufescent, and with a faint suggestion of streaking 

 above. On the other hand, a specimen from a neighboring locality 



