92 
'I'HK CONDOR 
I Vol. Ill 
The Santa Cruz Song Sparrow, with Notes on the Salt Marsh Song Sparrow. 
KV JOSEPH O.RINNELl,. 
Melospiza melodia santaecrucis new subspecies. 
S/(ds/>. Char. — Relationship apparently nearest to Melospiza melodia cooperi, from which it 
differs in smaller size, in ninch narrower and weaker bill, and in the greater extent and intensity 
of the brown markings. 
Type — ^ ad., ’No. 4292, Coll. J. G.; San Francisquito Creek, near Palo Alto, California; 
June 2, 1900; collected by J. Grinnell. 
Coloration — Feathers on top of the head with narrow sooty streaks, broadly edged with chest- 
nut; narrow median crown-stripe drab gray; feathers of mantle, broadly streaked with sooty and 
latterally margined with hazel and clay color. Wing-coverts, secondaries and tail feathers broad- 
ly edged with bright hazel. Postocular and rictal stripes, chiell}’ hazel. Superciliary stripe, 
drab gray. Breast and sides narrowly and sparsely streaked with sooty, the streaks running for- 
w’ard into well-defined ma.xillary stripes; most of these blackish markings are bordered narrowly 
%vith bright hazel. Flanks and crissum clay color, streaked with sooty sepia. Rest of under 
parts pure white. 
Range — Along the fresh-water streams heading in the Santa Cruz Mountain Region, from 
San Francisco south to Monterey Bay. 
Measurements — The following are the average measurements in inches of all the adult skins 
available of the four southern coast races of Melospiza melodia. 
Subspecies. 
I.oealit 3 '. 
Skins. 
U'ing. 
Tail. 
Culmen, 
Depth 
of Bill 
Skins. 
Wing. 
Tail. 
Culmen. 
Depth 
of Bill 
cooperi 
f Pasadena and 
15 
2.47 
2.81 
•47 
.28 
6 
2^33 
2.64 
■45 
.27 
1 vicinity 
5 6 
? ? 
santcscriicis 
( Fresh -water 
17 
2.41 
2.66 
■45 
■25 
ir 
2.31 
2.58 
■45 
■25 
\ streams P. A. 
5 3 
? ? 
^ Salt marshes 
20 
2.28 
2.46 
■44 
.24 
15 
2.18 
2.36 
■43 
■23 
pusillula 
-J S.F.Bay near 
5 6 
?? 
( Palo Alto. 
1 Salt marshes 
3 
2. 28 
2.50 
■43 
■23 
2 
2-15 
2.37 
■43 
■23 
sa mu ells 
j St. Vincent, 
6 3 
$? 
i Marin Co. 
Remarks — This is another case serving to give the fauna of the Santa Cruz 
Mountain Region an insular complexion. The Song Sparrows from that vicinity 
have been variously referred to saimielis and heeriiiaiini, but upon comparison with 
either of these the distinctions are readily perceived. In the neighborhood of 
Palo Alto the habitats of sanieBcriids and pusilhila are immediately adjoining. San 
Francisquito Creek at its mouth forms a slight!}' elevated delta sloping away 
gently into the surrounding salt marsh. Santa Cruz Song Sparrows are abundant 
and constant residents from the source of this stream in the Sierra Morena, to the 
hnal limit of the willows at its mouth. At this latter point we have the interest- 
ing problem of two “subspecies” breeding literally within a stone’s-throw 
of each other. I have in mind a particular area near the foot of the Embarcadero 
Road, where a salt slough, its banks matted with Salicornia, winds along a willow 
thicket. Here on May 1 1, and on several previous occasions throughout the 
year, I shot typical specimens of both pusillula and santacrucis \\ ithin a few yards 
of each other, but I have never found either one in the habitat of the other. 
The full-fledged young of both forms, which are as easily distinguishable as the 
adults, were secured in numbers, but those of santcEcriicis always in the willows 
of the creek and the weed-patches adjoining, while those of pusillula invariably 
came from the Salicornia beds. Briefly, I have no evidence whatever that 
pusillula and santcecrucis interbreed. The latter, however, is obviously in 
geographical continuity with cooperi to the south, and probably with the still 
larger heermanni of the vSacramento-San Joaquin Basin. But what has been the 
derivation of the Salt Marsh Song Sparrow? I have no material whatever to 
show that either of the small marsh forms, saniuelis and pusillula., intergrades with 
