174 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 12 



at Riverside Mountain, on the California side, the presence of this 

 song sparrow was established by the taking of specimens. The last 

 capture for the season was made at the last-named station, March 17. 

 The ten specimens secured (nos. 13236-13245) are quite uniform in 

 characters and are so exactly like birds from northern Nevada as 

 to leave no doubt as to the source of those individuals of foliar visit- 

 ing the Colorado Valley in winter. 



Song sparrows were very often heard when it proved impossible to 

 rout them out from the dense arrowweed thickets in which they took 

 refuge. It thus happened that the identity of most of the song 

 sparrow population known to occur in a locality could not be ascer- 

 tained. Judging from specimens shot, up to the middle of March, 

 there were about as many fallax as saltanis. After this time fallax 

 had departed from the region for its summer home, and the resident 

 form, saltonis, was the only song sparrow remaining. No difference 

 in habits or notes was detected between the two forms, and they 

 appeared to possess identical preferences in regard to feeding grounds 

 and cover. Both often ventured a few yards into open grassy or weedy 

 places occasionally found adjoining the quail-brush belt; and both 

 forms occurred through the willows to the water's edge, where, 

 especially at early morning or late evening, they foraged among drift 

 or through root tangles. 



The name montana of Henshaw (1884, p. 224) is here considered 

 synonymous with the older fallax, of Baird (1854). The latter has 

 been shown to be incorrectly employed for the "desert" song sparrow 

 resident along the Gila and Colorado rivers (see Grinnell, 1909, p. 

 269), and I now fail to see good grounds for recognizing two song 

 sparrows from the Rocky Mountain region. 



Melospiza melodia saltonis Grinnell 

 Salton Sink Song Sparrow 



This was the form of song sparrow resident along the Colorado 

 River. Song sparrows were noted in the vicinity of every one of our 

 collecting stations from Needles and Mellen to Pilot Knob. Through 

 the big valleys, as we floated along near shore especially in April and 

 May, we were often almost continuously within hearing of them. The 

 presence of fallax early in the season renders somewhat uncertain the 

 occurrence of saltonis at the two points (Needles and Mellen) where 



