Nov., 1923 STATUS OF SOME NORTHWESTERN SONG SPARROWS 217 



papers, for I have always regarded birds from all sections studied as Melospiza 

 m.,rufina. (See Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool, x, 1912, p. 60; ibid., xxiv, 1922, 

 p. 255.) I did recognize certain differences between specimens in the Alaskan 

 series, differences which are here correlated with the names rufina and mor- 

 phna, but heretofore I have not been able to associate these characters with 

 definite regions. It is the series from the Queen Charlotte Islands that proves 

 the decisive factor. On those islands, apparently, the characters of rufina 

 reach their extreme development, and with less variation between individuals 

 than is seen elsewhere, where the range of morphna is approached. 



In the rufina group, a feature that is at once apparent on examination 

 of the large series now available is the surprising amount of individual varia- 

 tion in series from almost any section that is fairly well represented; and also 

 the unexpected sort of variation that may crop up anywhere, as exemplified by 

 certain skins from scattered localities. 



As will be seen from the list of specimens appended, the material as- 

 sembled includes extensive series from mjany places. It is the sort of variation 

 that is exliibited in certain of these series that made me formerly unwilling 

 to recognize two races, rufina and morphna, from, the coastal region, north 

 and south. Following are brief comments upon certain of the larger and more 

 important series here considered. 



Breeding birds from Vancouver Island are rather more uniform in ap- 

 pearance than Alaskan specimens, and generally they are brighter colored, 

 more ruddy, than are the latter. Even in the Vancouver Island series, though, 

 there are specimens, taken at the same place and the same time, that are mark- 

 edly different in appearance. Together with the usual type of bird, with 

 ruddy coloration and rather soft, blended markings, there is a considerable 

 mixture of others, some darker, others more grayish, and somje more heavily 

 streaked above and below. A breeding bird from Alberni (Mus. Vert. Zool., 

 no. 16199, adult female) can be closely matched in a series of the distant 

 cleonensis, from the coast of northern California. A series from Nootka 

 Sound is notable in the miatter of bill development. In these birds the bill is 

 long and slender, closely similar in shape to the bill of rufina. 



In a series of seven birds, immatures in first winter plumage, taken 

 near the mouth of the Taku River, Alaska, Septemiber 7 to 16, 1909, there is 

 as much color variation as between Alaskan and Vancouver Island specimens. 

 Some of the Taku Eiver skins may be matched very closely by comparable 

 specimens from Vancouver Island. Seven immatures and adults in fresh win- 

 ter plumage taken on Sergief Island, Alaska, August 18 to September 4, 1919, 

 are about like the Taku River birds, and show thq same sort of variation. 



Eight breeding adults from the upper Stikine River, British Columbia, 

 taken June 9 to July 17, 1919, show a surprising amount of variation, in rela- 

 tive redness or grayness of general coloration and in the amount of red or of 

 black in the streaking on the breast and on the back. Among six breeding 

 adults from Hazelton, British Columbia, taken in May and June, 1921, there 

 are extremes of redness and grayness as far apart as those distinguishing the 

 average red-colored morphna of Puget Sound from the gray-colored merrilli 

 of the interior. Fall plumaged birds from the same place show similar, though 

 not as great, variation. 



A series of eleven breeding birds (coll. Victoria Memorial Museum) 



