Mar., 1902. 1 
THE CONDOR 
37 
In some respects the Oregon song sparrow is a remarkable form. It is 
darker than the races north and south of its range, and duplicates in coloring the 
sooty song sparrow of the Sitkan District. The races along the coast seem thus to 
alternate light and dark. But while phcca is nearly identical with rufiiia in color, 
it is conspicuously smaller, and the ranges of the two are separated by several 
hundred miles. 
The present form occupies a strip along the coast from the northern limit of 
the redwoods f?) or at least from Rogue River north to Yaquina. The specimens 
from Crescent City are probably migrants as the breeding birds seem nearer 
cleo 7 iensis (tho not precisely typical). The area of intergradation between cleoijen- 
sis and phcpa is probably small, extending perhaps from Crescent City to Chetco 
R. (northern limit of Sequoia sempervirens). Lack of specimens prevents the 
exact determination of the limits of phcca at the north. 
I am indebted to Mr. Robert Ridgway and to Dr. C. Hart Merriam for the use 
of specimens and types in the collection of the National Museum and in that of 
the Biological Survey. 
Winter Observations on the Colorado Desert. 
F. s. DAGGETT, PASADENA, CAT.. 
F rom Oct. 27 to nov. 16, 1901, i 
spent at the American Girl Gold 
Mining Co.’s camp, located in the 
Cargo Murchacho Mts on the Colorado 
Desert, five and one-half miles north- 
east of Ogilby, Cal., and some sixteen 
miles west of Yuma, on the Colorado 
River. The westward trend of the river 
below Yuma, however, brings the 
stream within eleven miles of camp to 
the .southeast. 
From a bird standpoint, or any other, 
for that matter, it is a most uninviting 
spot. The camp is located in a dry 
gulch formed by ridges of barren rock 
north and south of it. At one time the 
wash at the ^ottom of the gulch sup- 
ported a few stunted palo verde, iron 
wood and mesquite trees, but they have 
long since been cut for fuel. The onl}^ 
water obtained is from a pipe line 
reaching the Colorado River eleven 
miles away. The pipes are carefully 
watched for leakages so the birds have 
scant supply from that source, but a 
floating board in the reservoir at the 
end of the pipe line furnishes a possible 
watering place. I often saw them at 
the tub in the horse corral and about 
the seepage at the end of the kitchen 
drain. Another place, and a most 
deadly trap it proved judging from the 
dead birds floating on its surface, was 
the cyanide tanks, two in number, con- 
taining a strong solution of cyanide of 
pota.ssium. Birds that essayed to 
quench their thirst at this fount top- 
pled over dead in an instant. 
When I arrived in camp I found sev- 
eral American pipits, three interme- 
diate sparrows {Z. 1 . gambeli) and 
another variety of sparrow too soaked 
by solution for identification, besides 
many that rested on the bottom of the 
tank. The most common and the only 
resident bird, the rock wren, seemed to 
avoid this danger entirely, it being at- 
tractive only to thirsty migrants. That 
there is a migration across the desert is 
evident from the fact that such birds, 
as mentioned above, are found so far 
from their natural environment. A 
small horse and a larger mule corral, 
with its scattered hay, offers .some at- 
traction for birds in the way of seeds 
and grain, but only once did I see them 
take advantage of it, when three j uncos 
were seen on the ground near the 
baled hay at daylight one morning. 
There were about a dozen rock 
wrens {Salphictes obsoletus) about camp. 
They were very tame in the vicinity of 
building, wood and lumber piles, but 
very wary and secretive among the 
