1920] Swarth: Revision of Avian Genus Passerella 165 



to winter in small numbers as far north as the latter station. The 

 Pacific slope of southern California is evidently the winter metropolis 

 of megarhynchus. In the foothills of this section it is in winter per- 

 haps the commonest of the fox sparrows, certainly the most abundant 

 of the Schistacea group. Dates of capture, in the region about Pasa- 

 dena, range from September 15 to April 17 ; in the Santa Monica 

 Mountains, from October 26 to February 22; from the Ojai Vallej^, 

 Ventura County, there is one as late as April 27. There is but one 

 specimen (no. 30446, Mus. Vert. Zool., Seaside, Monterey County, 

 December 30) from a coastal point between Santa Barbara and San 

 Francisco, but it would not be surprising should the subspecies be 

 found regularly, migrating at least, along the coast ranges of this 

 section. 



On the whole there is a notable contrast in the abundance of this 

 subspecies in its winter home in southern California, and its scarcity 

 as a migrant farther north in the state. An explanation of this con- 

 dition may be found in this bird again being one that leaves its breed- 

 ing ground abruptly and departs by a long flight to its winter home, 

 passing over much of the intervening country. 



Passerella iliaca brevicauda Mailliard 

 Yolla Bolly Fox Sparrow 



Original description-. — Passerella iliaca irevicauda Mailliard, 1918, p. 138. 



Type specimen.— No. 23924, Calif. Mus. Vert. Zool.; female adult; 

 one-half mile south of South Yolla Bolly Mountain, in Trinity County, 

 California; August 7, 1913; collected by A. C. Shelton and George 

 Stone (original number 385). 



Range. — There are breeding birds at hand from South Yolla Bolly 

 Mountain, which lies at the junction of Trinity, Tehama and Mendo- 

 cino counties, from Snow Mountain, in the northwestern corner of 

 Colusa County, and also one juvenal from Mount Sanhedrin, in north- 

 eastern Mendocino County. Winter birds have been examined from 

 the near vicinity of the coast, from Marin County, central California, 

 and from Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, includ- 

 ing Santa Catalina Island, southern California. 



Specimens examined. — 73 (see list, pp. 204-205). 



Distingmshing characters. — Of the Schistacea group (see p. 89). 

 Of the subspecies within this group hrevicauda is superficially most 

 nearly like stephensi, the two being noticeably alike in the enormous 

 development of the bill. Between stephensi and hrevicauda there are 

 differences of color and proportions. Brevicauda is brownish colored, 

 stephensi grayish ; hrevicauda has the tail shorter than stephensi (see 

 table 4), has weaker claws (see fig. AA), and a somewhat differently 

 shaped bill (see fig. F). 



