Sept., 1915 
NEW RACE OF SAVANNAH SPARROW 
187 
two females from Dos Palos, Merced County, November 2 and 9, 1908 (nos. 
19628-9), are very similar. All were collected by Mr. Marsden. These birds do 
not have as broad black centers to the feathers of the upperparts, and the hazel 
borders are wider than in females from Tucson, Arizona, November 10, 1905, H. 
W. M. (no. 14757) and Gallatin County, Montana, May 20, 1907, A. A. Saunders 
(no. 20578), but in general pallor and lack of hazel and buff in the plumage 
are nearer to them than to alaudinus from the Pacific Coast. If, as seems neces- 
sary, these birds are called nevadensis, the Savannah Sparrows breeding in North 
Dakota and wintering in Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, must also be referred to 
this subspecies. The Savannah Sparrows breeding in Saskatchewan appear to 
be intergrades with alaudinus, though somewhat nearer nevadensis, while the few 
skins I have from Teton County, Montana, and Okanagan, British Columbia, are 
plainly alaudinus. 
Passerculus sandwichensis bryanti. A female collected at San Bruno, San 
Mateo County, May 1, 1904, H. H. Bailey (no. 17420), has a bill as long and 
slender as average females of the Belding Sparrow from San Diego County ; and 
a male, Witch Creek, San Diego County, February 12, 1904 (no. 10864), and a 
female, Long Beach, Los Angeles County, February 21, 1896, F. S. Daggett (no. 
21653), I cannot help referring to bryanti, although the former is on back inter- 
mediate with beldingi. It seems to me that the true relation between these birds 
would be better expressed by the trinomial, Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi. 
Passerculus sandwichensis brooksi. Dwarf Savannah Sparrow. New sub- 
species. 
Type. — S adult, no. 12975, collection of Louis B. Bishop; Chilliwack, Brit- 
ish Columbia, April 4, 1905 ; Allan Brooks. 
Subspecific Characters. — Nearest in size to P. s. bryanti, but with slightly 
longer wing and tail, slightly smaller bill, and shorter tarsus ; much paler in col- 
oring, with the dark central stripes much narrower both above and below, and 
the rusty paler. Smaller, but with relatively longer bill than P. s. alaudinus and 
P. s. nevadensis ; much paler and with less rusty in plumage of upper parts than 
P. s. alaudinus; closely resembling P. s. nevadensis in color, but slightly darker 
and more brownish above, with the supra-loral stripe broader and richer, and 
with the auricular region, nape and sides of neck washed Avith buff, these dif- 
ferences showing best in birds in fresh winter plumage. 
Range. — Resident in southwestern British Columbia near the coast; some 
migrating to Humboldt Bay, California, in August. 
In May, 1905, Mr. Allan Brooks, while sending me some birds from Suinas, 
B. C., called my attention to the fact that two forms of Savannah Sparrow oc- 
curred there, — a small bird, “the resident form, \Adiich breeds on the coast only 
(west of the Cascades), generally on tidal flats and never at high elevations”, 
and a larger bird, which appeared only in the migrations, breeding “in the in- 
terior and northward”. He stated also that the migratory form did not arrive 
in spring until three Aveeks or a month after the breeding race and that the latter 
sometimes wintered. At the time this race, though evidently distinct from the 
alaudinus occurring in transit, seemed too close to the bird breeding in North 
Dakota to warrant description; but some very small Savannah Sparrows, col- 
lected at Trinidad, Humboldt County, California, in August, 1909, by Mr. Mars- 
den, were evidently this small Sumas bird and evidently not the North Dakota 
form. I have named it after Mr. Brooks, its discoverer, as a slight tribute to his 
worth as an ornithologist, artist, and brave defender of his country. 
