1920] Swarth: Revision of Avian Genus Passerella 167 



should be purely a coincidence (see pp. 110-111). Some of the writer's 

 earliest experiences in bird collecting (in the vicinity of Los Angeles) 

 were with fox sparrows, and he soon discovered that the place to hunt 

 for '^ thick-billed sparrows" (quite satisfactorily thick-billed they were, 

 too ! ) was in certain brushy caiions between Los Angeles and the ocean, 

 while for "Townsend's sparrows" (any of the Unalaschcensis group) 

 it was usually necessary to make trips to the mountain tops and 

 caiions to the eastward above Pasadena, 



In its history thus far, hremcauda has been regularly confused with 

 stephensi. Winter specimens of the former at one time were cited 

 by Mailliard (1912, p. 63) as demonstrating the winter occurrence 

 of the latter in Marin County. Oberholser (1900, p. 233) lists speci- 

 mens of stephensi from Santa Catalina Island in April, and Bowles 

 (1911, p. 175) from Santa Barbara in August. The specimens upon 

 which the above records were based have all been examined by the 

 present writer, and all prove to be examples of hrevicauda. It will 

 be noted that Oberholser {loc. cit.) comments upon the brown dorsal 

 coloration of the Santa Catalina Island specimens, one of the dis- 

 tinguishing features of hrevicauda as compared with stephensi. 



Wliile brevioauda has thus been confused with stephensi wherever 

 the former has been collected, I nevertheless do not believe the rela- 

 tionships of the two to be especially close. The large bill, common 

 to both, is, of course, a most conspicuous feature, the presence of which 

 would be apt to lead the observer astray, for without strongly con- 

 firmatory evidence one would hardly assume the existence of two 

 subspecies of the same species, each characterized by exceptional 

 development of the bill. With this feature conspicuously in view, 

 the differentiating characters of color and proportions are not such 

 as to impress the observer so strongly, especially with but a limited 

 number of specimens for comparison. With an adequate series, how- 

 ever, it can be seen that the peculiar characters of hrevicauda are 

 further accentuations of the features, not of stephensi, but of megar- 

 hynchus. The latter is a rather brownish colored bird, compared 

 with mariposae and stephensi, and with a broad, stubby bill. Brevi- 

 cauda is still browner in color, and with the same shaped bill greatly 

 (-nlarged (see fig. F). In typical stephensi, at least in adult birds, 

 the bill is rather longer and more slenderly pointed, very much the 

 shape seen in mariposae, though, of course, of greater size (see fig. E). 



Individual variation in subspecific characters is manifested in the 

 series of hrevicauda to about the same extent as in the other races 



