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TFIE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LIII 



of Ryan. Ryan, by the way, is the terminus of the narrow- 

 grange line, wlierever that terminus happens to be, and this shifts 

 about as determined by the extent of the different ledges of 

 borax ore mined. The borax deposits on the floor of Death Val- 

 ley are no longer gathered. The day of the 20-mule-team. borax 

 wagons is gone except on the labels. It is cheaper to handle 

 the richer borax ore high on the mountain sides and to reach 

 these ledges by railroad. The present Ryan, the nearest the 

 railroad lias so far gotten to Death Valley, is 17 miles from 

 (h-eenland Ranch and 8,000 feet altitudinally above it. I saw 

 English sparrows tliere repeatedly in April and May, 1917, as 

 also at Death V^alley Jnnetioii, 40 miles farther away, on the 

 Tonopah and Tidewater Railway. Mr. Denton believes, and I 

 think he is likely right, that the sparrows followed the construc- 

 tion camps along the route of the T. & T. R. R. from Ludlow to 

 Death Valley .lunction and tlience along the narrow-gauge to 

 Ryan. It may be further suggested that since hauling is done 

 from time to time down the 17 miles of Furnace Creek Wash 

 from Ryan to Greenland Ranch this is the route probably trav- 

 elled by those sparrows which reached Death Valley. It is less 

 probable to my mind that the birds simply started out overland, 

 from some more distant point, and a pair or more just happened 

 to reach tiiis remote and forbidding valley. It is true, however, 

 that the green of the ranch shines out conspicuously for miles 

 round about and would surely attract to it any vagrant sparrow 



w/h.Mv in Am.'rir,, liasv b.-.-n an-nst .)n.e. 1 to tliink of the 

 Kii-lisli s|.;ii'ruu ,i fiiM ^/.nu.. I'„.s,r ilnnn^tnns. The bird 

 was oriii-inally iimurd l.v Li,^uuM.^. aii.l llius has Mvn.rd from all 

 standpoints ..onstuut. a tn.K •• Lin.ia. an s,H.r...s. " " How- 

 ever, recent developments in the geographic knowledge of birds 

 in the Old World has brought out the fact of geograpliic varia- 

 tion within tlie specie^ Passer (]om(sticus as previonsly under- 



1 "Hl,n.,rv -nor.iphic intergradation. ITartert (1910^ 



