1920] Swarth: Revision of Avimi Genus Passerella 163 



there are no published references to the occurrence of fox sparrows 

 in that region, at any rate nothing to shed light on this problem. 



Among the winter birds from southern California here ascribed to 

 megarhynchus, there are many that are difficult to distinguish by 

 color from mariposae. It is worth noting that rather grayish-colored 

 individuals are frequent in the Claremont series, while brown-colored 

 ones predominate about Pasadena and Los Angeles. The gray-colored 

 Claremont specimens, however, have the stubby bill characteristic of 

 megarhynchus, and I consequently place them in that category. I 

 do not claim to possess a perfect understanding of the exact relation- 

 ships existing between megarhynchus, mariposae, and fulva, which, 

 indeed, can not be attained without much more information than I 

 possess regarding the summer habitats of all three ; I can not do more 

 than point out the features of the winter birds examined, as correlated 

 with places of capture. The suggestion may be made, however, that 

 here again is evidence of fairly close restriction of winter habitat ; 

 furthermore, winter birds with the various characters above described 

 should in the future be checked up with summer birds from points as 

 yet unrepresented, in the more minute working out of relationships 

 and routes of migration. 



Megarhynchus is a common winter visitant to the Pacific slope of 

 southern California, but there are very few specimens from other 

 points indicating the route traversed between this region and its breed- 

 ing ground. There are three specimens at hand from Tower House, 

 Shasta County, taken on March 2 and 7, and one from Sisson, Siskiyou 

 County, September 5 ; whether these birds were winter visitants at 

 the points of capture, or merely migrants, there is no way of telling. 

 At any rate they may be taken as evidence that the breeding ground 

 of megarhynchus lies at least as far north as this. The subspecies 

 certain!}^ does not breed in the immediate vicinity of either Tower 

 House or Sisson. 



One bird from Lakeport, Lake County, taken on February 27 

 (no. 11436, Calif. Acad. Sci.), is in large part albino, but is un- 

 equivocally megarhynchus nevertheless. There is one specimen of 

 megarhynchus from Nicasio, Marin County, taken January 30, the 

 only one of this subspecies that has come to light among the many 

 fox sparrows examined from this county. The dates of capture of 

 the two birds last mentioned are indicative of their being winter 

 visitants, though the subspecies is evidently extremely rare at the 

 points where they were taken. There is a record of megarhynchus 



