Mar., 1922 FOX SPARROWS IN CALIFORNIA 53 
Many of the balance apparently show intergradation with other races and are 
very difficult to place. Swarth, in his ‘‘Revision of the Avian Genus Passe- 
fella’ (Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool:, vol. 21, 1920, p. 150), says of a number of 
P. 2. fuliginosa he had examined: ‘‘ With the exception of one or two specimens 
from Humboldt Bay they do not even approach typical fuliginosa very closely 
in appearance; they are placed in that category because their characters are 
such as to indicate a closer affinity to fuliginosa than to any other form, and 
probably illustrate intergradation between fuliginosa and some one of the ad- 
jacent subspecies.”’ 
in the work just quoted (p. 144) Swarth states that the Townsend Fox 
Sparrow (P. 2. townsend?) is abundant near Humboldt Bay (Califorma) in win- 
ter, and this statement led me to suppose that we would come across it in 
numbers. On the contrary, we found this form extremely scarce, securing only 
four specimens, all females, which could be positively identified as such, and 
three or four others which appeared to be between townsendi and fuliginosa. 
Of the four identified as townsendi, two were taken at Capetown, right on the 
coast; one near Petrolia, a little Parilien inland; and one at Thorn. Possibly 
the Townsend Fox Sparrow appears in Humboldt County in greater numbers 
later on in the winter, lagging behind the other species during the fall migra- 
tion, or perhaps waiting until heavy storms or lack of food actualiy force an 
sate from its breeding grounds. 
Of the thirty-eight specimens taken, only the four mentioned abowe could 
be decidedly separated from fuliginosa; and but one or two even tend toward 
the lighter colored, more grayish, yet slender billed races found during the 
fall migration east of the humid coast belt, and these few cases are not very 
pronounced. 
Representatives of what Swarth terms the ‘‘Schistacea group’’, with the 
gray or brownish coloration predominating, and a much more stubby bill, 
among which are the so-called ‘‘slate-colored’’ and ‘‘thick-billed’’ sparrows, 
were entirely absent from the territory we worked in, although careful watch 
was maintained for strays of those races. Nor was the ‘‘Iliaca group’’, of 
bright reddish and clear gray coloration approaching the eastern fox sparrow, 
met with in a single instance. 
This seems to show that while the darker races select the coast territory 
for the line of flight, some do stray toward the interior, and that no individ- 
uals of the other two groups are attracted toward the coast until fairly well 
south, say, to Sonoma or Marin County. 
While the work above outlined has not been sufficiently systematic or 
long continued to obtain the amount of information upon the subject which it 
would be desirable to have, it has been sufficiently so to give a good idea of 
the conditions in the territory covered. With similar fall work in sections 
farther eastward, which it is hoped will be accomplished in the near future, a 
good deal more will be added to our meager store of knowledge concerning 
these groups, and a good working basis established for more detailed opera- 
tions. It is with the hope of stimulating more widely spread interest in this 
matter, as much as to give the public the benefit of such observations as it has 
been in my power to make, that these papers upon fox sparrows are submitted. 
San Francisco, California, January 6, 1922. 
