1924] Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the Skeena Biver Region 357 



Thirteen specimens collected (nos. 42402-42409, 42411-42415) : 

 five breeding adults, one adult and four immatures in fresh fall 

 plumage, and three birds in juvenal plumage. 



Passerella iliaca iliaca (Merrem). Eastern Fox Sparrow 



On September 14, two fox sparrows were shot from a floek of five 

 or six flushed from a thicket. The two collected proved to be of the 

 subspecies iliaca, and from the glimpses I had of the others they all 

 appeared to be the same. The two specimens colfected (nos. 42416, 

 42417) are females in completely acquired first winter plumage. One 

 is typical of the subspecies iliaca in every respect. The second, though 

 obviously of this same subspecies, is darker colored than the mode, 

 and not so conspicuously streaked on the back. It is more nearly 

 uniform reddish above. Near Haz&lton, on September 22, a single 

 fox sparrow (no. 42418) was collected, an immature male. It is closely 

 similar to the second bird just described, perhaps a trifle darker and 

 more uniformly reddish. These birds were undoubtedly migrants 

 froin farther north. 



The only previous record of the eastern fox sparrow in British 

 Columbia is of a specimen collected at Sicamous, September 25, 1893 

 (Swarth, 1920, p. 118). 



Passerella iliaca altivagans Riley. Alberta Fox Sparrow 



Breeding, not abundantly, at and a little above timber line on 

 Nine-mUe Mountain. In the same general area as the golden-crowned 

 sparrow and in similar surroundings, though not so much in the 

 balsam thickets as in tangles of alder and veratrum. Constantly heard 

 singing but so shy generally as to avoid observation. The young birds 

 (July 22 to August 13) were flying about; mostly they were in 

 process of change from juvenal to first winter plumage. In Kispiox 

 Valley the first migrating fox sparrow of this subspecies appeared on 

 August 29, and a few more were seen at intervals up to September 7. 



Fourteen specimens collected (nos. 42419-42432) : on Nine-mile 

 Mountain, two adults (male and female), six in juvenal plumage and 

 in the post- juvenal molt; in Kispiox Valley, three males and three 

 females, all in first winter plumage. These birds, though properly 

 referred to altivagans (see Riley, 1911, p. 234), are not typical of that 

 subspecies. In more uniform coloration above and in darker streaking 

 below they show an unmistakable trend tOAvard the darker coastal 



