The Song Sparrows 



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Taken in Santa Barbara Photo by the Author 



A SANTA BARBARA SONG SPARROW 



IT IS NATURAL enough 

 that these short-winged birds 

 of comparatively limited 

 powers of flight should have 

 become differentiated on the 

 islands of the Santa Barbara 

 group. There is no apparent 

 reason, however, why the 

 smaller form, graminea, 

 should be found on the small- 

 est and the largest islands, 

 Santa Barbara and Santa 

 Cruz, widely separated as 

 they are; or why this form 

 should interrupt the range of 

 clementae, which is ascribed 

 to San Miguel and Santa 

 Rosa as well as to San Cle- 

 mente Island. The prob- 

 ability is that the resem- 

 blances found are adventi- 

 tious, and that the stocks on 

 San Clemente and San 

 Miguel are of a degree of 

 separation as ancient as 

 that obtaining between either 

 and its more immediate 

 neighbors. It is a pretty 

 problem, and we cannot pre- 

 tend to be on the way toward 

 a solution. 



No. 62m Heermann's Song Sparrow 



A. O. U. No. 581c. Melospiza melodia heermanni Baird. 



Description. — Similar to M. m. cooperi, but slightly grayer, especially on sides 

 of neck; the streaking of underparts more extensively bordered or suffused with rusty; 

 the buffy suffusion of streaked areas reduced or wanting except posteriorly. Very 

 slightly larger. 



Range (Wholly within California). — Resident along streams and over flooded 

 lands of the Tulare depression, from about the latitude of Fresno south to Ft. Tejon, 



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