The Fox Sparrows 



Range of P. i. townsendi. — Southeastern Alaska; breeds on the coasts and islands 

 from Cross Sound south to Dixon entrance; winters south to Monterey, California. 



Occurrence in California. — Winter resident in the northwestern humid coast 

 strip, south to Pacific Grove. 



Authorities. — Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. v., 1909, p. 232 (Alaska; 

 habits, nest and eggs, etc.); Willett, Auk, vol. xxxii., 1915, p. 305 (Alaska; desc. nests, 

 dates of nesting) ; Swarth, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. xxi., 1920, p. 144, figs, (occurrence 

 in Calif., distr., desc, crit.). 



No. 65g Sooty Fox Sparrow 



A. O. U. No. 585c Passerella iliaca fuliginosa Ridgway. 



Description. — Similar to P. i. townsendi, but plumage much darker and less 

 rufescent; also averaging larger. In this form nearly all semblance of distinction in 

 the streaking of the underparts has been lost. The bird is scarcely "sooty," but it is 

 of a very dark and nearly uniform brown. Larger: wing 82 (3.23); tail 76.1 (2.99); 

 culmen 11.9 (.47); depth of bill at base 10.6 (.417), width 8 (.315); tarsus 26 (1.02). 



Range of P. i. fuliginosa. — "Northwest coast strip. Breeds on the coast of 

 British Columbia, Vancouver Island, and northwestern Washington; winters south 

 along the coast to San Francisco, California" (A. 0. U.). 



Occurrence in California. — Sparingly resident through the humid coast belt 

 south to San Francisco. 



Authority. — Swarth, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. xxi., 1920, p. 149, figs, 

 (occurrence in Calif., distr., desc, crit.). 



THE 'LIBERTY of difference' is the most fascinating aspect of 

 bird-life, as it is one of the most engaging qualities in our fellow-men. 

 How beings of like origin may become different under the altered circum- 

 stances of life, and the certainty that they will change under the varying 

 impact of experience, this it is which gives zest to research and which 

 makes bird study a reflex of life itself. The tendency to vary is one 

 of the fundamental and familiar qualities of life. Species, genera, 

 families, orders, — all are the result of progressively divergent movements 

 of variation. But if the outcome in the manifold diversity of the living 

 is agreeable to us, the beginnings of difference must exert a tenfold 

 fascination. The detection of these beginnings is, indeed, the flattering 

 evidence of our own progress. Just as Millet could recognize twenty- 

 two shades of green where a layman saw only two, so the specialist in 

 animal variation sees a world of related beauty, a realm of historical 

 order, where the layman sees only vague confusion, or a dull array of 

 uncomprehended names. 



For practical purposes there is only one Fox Sparrow. Pages might 

 be written about the Fox Sparrow, pages alike true of birds from Anti- 

 costi or the Yukon or Kadiak or the San Jacinto Mountains, — pages in 

 which no sense of difference should be allowed to intrude itself upon the 



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