298 
REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. 
a type of its own, exhibiting the main characters of fall ax, but differing more or less ap¬ 
preciably. Thus the region of the Gila River affords a style of this race quite distinct 
from any other. The principal variation is seen in the very pale reddish tint, with 
scarcely a trace of dusky, which is especially noticeable in the streakings on the breast. 
Another phase from Camp Harney, Oregon, is remarkable for its pale grayish tints. 
Such inter-races are doubtless the result of causes very local in their action, and are 
so slight and inconstant as to deserve nothing more than passing notice. 
Reaching the foot-hills of the Sierras we find fallax beginning to assume new char¬ 
acters, and in the mountains and along the western foot-hills it finally merges into 
var. heermanni, This form is characterized by a much darker shade of brown than 
either fallax or mclodia, and by a bill much stouter than the former, but less robust 
than the latter. Heermanni has usually been considered the Californian song sparrow, 
the term thus including indifferently the birds both from the coast and the interior. 
But this is a mistake. The type now before me came from lort Tejon, and it is in 
the interior only that the style to which this name was applied is met with. 
Reaching the coast, another form is for the first time encountered. This is the var. 
8amiteli8, of which the gouldii of Baird, as correctly determined by Mr. Ridgway, is the 
fall plqmage. Hitherto some three or four individuals from the vicinity of San Fran¬ 
cisco have been taken as representirg all tbat was known of this race. But no fewer 
than forty-six specimens are now at hand that agree well with the type, and are un¬ 
questionably referable here. In point of fact, it is samuelis alone that occurs in summer 
along and near the Californian coast, and nearly all published accounts of the habits, 
nesting, &c., of the song sparrow of California are to be taken as referring to it. This 
form rests chiefly upon its small size, it being by considerable the smallest of all the races, 
and the very dark, almost black, color of its prominent streakings. But it is upon a 
basis of size alone that it can be separated from heermanni, both agreeing in essential 
points of coloration. In fact, the question might well be raised whether it is neces¬ 
sary to recognize by distinct names two forms irom this region. I have on the whole 
deemed it expedient to do so, as the difference of size, especially of bill, in specimens 
from the respective habitats of the two, as indicated, is pronounced and quite con¬ 
stant, readily sufficing in the great majority of cases for their identification. Thus 
in over thirty specimens of heermanni from Stockton, Cal., kindly furnished by Mr. 
Belding, I find no marked differences, and all the individuals from the interior 
that have been examined, representing many localities, agree in large size, the aver¬ 
age being considerably in excess of those from the coast. A series of nine males, col¬ 
lected about Oakland, for the opportunity of examining which I am indebted to the 
courtesy of Mr. D. S. Bryant, of San Francisco, are similarly constant to the coast 
type so far as size is concerned, hut vary somewhat in coloration. The differences are 
chiefly as to the number and size of the black streakings below, two of the nine being 
the darkest, and, on the whole, the most typical examples of samuelis I have seen. 
Of the var. mexicana Ridgway, from Southern Mexico, little can be said, since the 
name rests upon a single specimen. This individual appears to be recognizable from 
the other races by its rather peculiar coloration, the streakings being very broad as 
well as black, and by its small size. More specimens are necessary to determine its 
true relations. 
Var. guttata next invites attention. This is characterized by a darker, more rufescent 
type of color; the streaks on the dorsum are very indistinct, in some almost wanting. 
The bill is proportionately more slender than in any of the preceding forms. 
The typical home of this variety is the Columbia River region, coastwise. But long 
before reaching that point evidence is afforded by specimens of intermediate character 
of the change to appear farther to the north. Thus fall and winter specimens from 
Nicasio, evidently reared farther north, are unquestionably intermediate in coloration 
between samuelis and guttata, while during the past season specimens were obtained 
by the expedition in Oregon upon the eastern slope, thus approximating the habitat 
of fallax, that are no less intermediate between that central region form and guttata, 
the two forms to the northward evidently passing, by insensible stages, into the latter! 
Var. rufina is simply guttata with the tendencies of the latter carried a step or two 
farther, with increase of latitude. The rufous of guttata in extreme cases becomes a 
reddish sepia brown ; the size is somewhat larger, the bill rather more slender. This 
is rufina as found about Sitka and southward. 
Upon certain of the Alaskan Islands occurs insignis. This gigantic sparrow is dis¬ 
tinguished, in addition to its great size, by a much paler, grayer phase of color than 
its nearest geographical neighbor, rufina. The streaks, instead of being nearly or quite 
obsolete, as in that form, are well defined and of an umber brown. 
Of insignis, Baird and Ridgway say: “Between M. melodia of the Atlantic States 
and M. insignis of Kodiak the difference seems wide, but the connecting links in the 
inter-regions bridge this over so completely that with a series of hundreds of speci- 
mens Delore us, we abandon the attempt at specific separation.” * * * it cannot be 
denied that the var. rufina from Sitka is nearer insignis, by many degrees, than the 
melodia of the East, and, as has just been indicated, nothing is wanting in the chain of 
