The Song Sparrows 



general tone of color olive-brown, reddening slightly on pileum (where sometimes 

 separated by a faint median line of grayish), upper tail-coverts, and edgings of wings 

 and tail; feathers of back and scapulars blackish centrally; a superciliary line (lightest 

 in front) grayish white; cheeks varied by whitish on a brown ground; below white, 

 clearest on chin, lower throat, and abdomen, elsewhere, especially on sides of throat, 

 chest, and sides, heavily streaked with warm brown (Prout's brown to bister), heavily 

 washed on sides and flanks with ochraceous buffy; tibiae and crissum ochraceous- 

 rusty with darker centers. Bill blackish above, lighter on mandible; feet dark brown- 

 ish. Juvenals somewhat resemble parents, but show more "pattern" above, with 

 heightened contrasts of black and rusty. They are more highly, finely, and uniformly 

 streaked below with blackish, and are tinged with yellowish buff. Length about 

 162.5 (6.40): wing 66 (2.60); tail 65 (2.56); bill 12.7 (.50); tarsus 17 (.67). 



Remark. — A form, .1/. m. morphna, has been described by Oberholser from west- 

 ern British Columbia and Washington. Northern specimens of nifina may average 

 slightly larger than those resident on Puget Sound, but the color pattern is singularly 

 uniform from Cross Sound south to the upper limits of Puget Sound. The subspecies 

 is probably non-migratory in the southern portion of its range; so that specimens 

 taken in California in winter hail from western Alaska; so if there is a recognizable 

 form morphna, there is no evidence that it invades California. 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; heavy streaking of breast and sides fairly 

 distinctive, save for the Fox Sparrows {Passerella iliaca group), from which it may 

 be further distinguished by white superciliary line, smaller size, and more active 

 behavior. 



Range of .1/. m. rufina. — Breeds from the coasts and islands of southeastern 

 Alaska south to western Washington; winters from southern British Columbia and 

 Washington south to the humid coast belt of California. 



Occurrence in California. — Regular winter visitor in the northwestern humid 

 coast belt, south to San Francisco Bay; casual at Riverside (Swarth) and Claremont 

 (Pierce). 



Authorities. — Audubon (Fringilla cincrea), Orn. Biog., vol. v., 1839, p. 22, 

 pi. 390, fig. I; Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. v., 1909, p. 229 (Alaska; habits, 

 nest and eggs, nomencl.); Swarth, Condor, vol. xii., 1910, p. 108 (Riverside); Kellogg, 

 Condor, vol. xiii. , 191 1, p. 120 (Tower House, Shasta Co.; crit.) ; Allen, Condor, vol. 

 xxii., 1920, p. 16 (migr.) ; Pierce, Condor, vol. xxii., July, 1920, p. 156. 



CALIFORNIA Song Sparrows are sedentary save in the territory 

 east of the Sierras, where increased altitudes and lower temperatures 

 enforce evacuation in winter. In like manner, upon the Pacific Coast 

 proper a point is reached, somewhere to the north of us, where the rigors 

 of winter institute a migratory impulse in the Song Sparrows. The 

 reaction to this impact may be of two sorts: Either the birds, slightly 

 discommoded, move a few miles southward and rest content; or else they 

 may flee wildly southward until they reach some totally different environ- 

 ment, and one in which they feel entirely secure. These two forms of 

 compulsory movement do actually manifest themselves, and, probably, 

 every gradation between. Two races of the Song Sparrow living to the 



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