1922] Swarth : Birds and Mammals of the Stikine Region 243 



nesting there. The birds were seen feeding on the ground at the edges 

 of marshy meadows, usually near the shelter of thickets of scrubby 

 willow brush. The three Specimens collected (nos. 39939-39941) are 

 not to be distinguished from examples at hand from the Yukon and 

 Kotzebue Sound regions, Alaska. I have seen a specimen collected by 

 E. P. Walker at Wrangell, January 16, 1919. This capture may 

 indicate the occasional passage of the species down the Stikine Valley. 



Spizella passerina passerina (Bechstein) . Eastern Chipping Sparrow 

 Abundant at low altitudes in the upper Stikine Valley. Many 

 seen near Telegraph Creek, in sparsely wooded sections, the males fre- 

 quently singing from some low perch. Two nests were found here, on 

 June 19 and 24. Each was in a lodgepole pine sapling, some ten feet 

 from the ground, and in each case the tree was too slender to be 

 climbed. The species was likewise abundant at Glenora and at Doch- 

 da-on Creek. It was not seen farther down the river. Seven speci- 

 mens collected, all adults (nos. 39942-39948). These, and others from 

 northern British Columbia, in color and measurements are much nearer 

 to eastern passerina than to typical arizonae from Arizona. 



Junco hyemalis connectens Coues. Cassiar Junco 

 "We collected forty-four specimens of this junco, as follows : vicin- 

 ity of Telegraph Creek (between that point and the Summit), twenty- 

 eight (fourteen adult males, twelve adult females, and two juvenals) ; 

 Glenora, seven (one adult male, three adult females, and three juve- 

 nals) ; Doch-da-on Creek, three (one adult male, two juvenals) ; Flood 

 Glacier, six adult males. (Museum nos. 39949-39988, 39990, 39993, 

 39998, 39999.) 



The systematic status of the junco of the Stikine region is a matter 

 of more than ordinary interest to both the taxonomist and the student 

 of geographic distribution and evolution. Any treatment accorded 

 this form would doubtless arouse criticism from some direction, but 

 it seems to me desirable that the race be accorded formal subspecific 

 status. This junco is, in my opinion, a "good subspecies," a geo- 

 graphic race, in the sense that the birds over a certain area (of unde- 

 termined extent but undoubtedly a considerable stretch of country) 

 exhibit a combination of characters distinguishing them from other 

 described forms, and they remain true to these peculiarities within as 

 close limits as do most recognized subspecies. 



