GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS WEST OF 100TH MERIDIAN. 29£fc 
Choxdestes Swainson. 
C. grammaca (Say). Lark Sparrow. 
This species whs lost sight of about one hundred miles north of Carson. It doubt¬ 
less occurs in the low valleys, quite up into Oregon ; in fact, Suckley records a single 
specimen from The Dalles, on the Columbia. 
Zonotrichia Swainson. 
Z. albicollis (Gm.). White-throated Sparrow. 
Dakota has hitherto been given as forming the western limit of this sparrow. Nev¬ 
ertheless, it seems probable that it is to be added to the list of eastern species that 
reach the Pacific on the northwest coast and summer at the point where the Rocky 
Mountains dwindle away and admit of free passage. At all events, the presence of the 
white-throated sparrow was detected on the Columbia River, about forty miles from 
The Dalles, and thus beyond the eastern slope, and one of the two individuals seen 
was captured. I presume that it is by no means scarce here, although as the individ¬ 
uals noticed were seen only an hour or so before camp was broken for the return up 
the river, no opportunity was had for a satisfactory investigation of the matter. 
Z. leucophrys (Forst.). White-crowned Sparrow. 
As almost everywhere throughout the West, this sparrow occurs along the eastern 
slope in great numbers during the migrations. It is also numerous in these mountains 
in summer, resorting to breed to the willow thickets and aspen groves along the 
streams. 
A nest found in Eastern California, June 20,contained four eggs but slightly advanced. 
Several found on the 24th held young. The nests were quite typical of the ground- 
building sparrows, being outwardly composed of weed-stalks with an interior lining 
•of tine grasses and horse hairs, the whole snugly hidden away with a sparrow’s cunning 
beneath a small bush. 
The eggs are of a faint bluish green, irregularly and profusely spotted with reddish 
brown, which is most conspicuous at the larger ends. 
Z. gambeli intermedia Ridgw. Ridgway’s Sparrow. 
Flocks composed of this and the previous bird frequently fall into the path of the 
collector in this region during spring and fall. The present bird was not found in 
the mountains as a summer resident, and I believe it goes farther north to breed. Mr. 
Ridgway, indeed, in bis recent report to King,* mentions this bird as nesting in num¬ 
bers at Donner Lake Pass in the Sierras; but. as I now learn, he believes that his 
identification was incorrect (circumstances not permitting specimens to be obtained), 
and that the species thus referred to was, beyond doubt, the Z. leucophrys. This agrees 
fully with my own experience in this region, and leaves us with no record of the 
breeding of the var. intermedia in the Sierras. 
I have elsewhere presented facts bearing upon certain differences in the migrations 
of these two Zonotriehias, and have referred to the very extensive overlapping, east¬ 
ward and westward, of their respective habits, urging that these considerations, cou¬ 
pled with the constant, albeit slight, differences in coloration between the two, were 
sufficient to warrant the conclusion that intermedia was not a race of leucophrys. I am 
more than ever convinced of the truth of this. The Z. leucophrys is now known to 
breed on the northern frontier from the Atlantic to the Rocky mountains, and thence 
to the summit of the Sierras, and to follow the trend of these ranges far to the south¬ 
ward. Over all this immense region it maintains its characters with perfect consist¬ 
ency, there appearing in fact to be no appreciable differences between specimens tak¬ 
en on the Atlantic and others from its most remote western point. So far, then, as 
geographical considerations otter any evidence, it is manifestly absurd to consider 
intermedia as the “western” representative of a bird that in its typical condition is 
found in nearly every portion of the West, and that, too, breeding. 
On the other hand, that the relations of gambeli and intermedia are those of species 
and variety seems perfectly certain, and the two may be so treated in perfect con¬ 
formity with well ascertained laws of geographic variation, ganibeli being the darker 
coast representative of the pale, more northern (?) interior form intermedia. 
Z. coronate (Pall.). Golden-crowned Sparrow. 
This sparrow occurs along the eastern slope during the fall migration, but by no 
means in such immense numbers as distinguish its presence to the westward. On the 
♦Ornithology of United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, Clarence King, in 
•charge, p. 471. 
