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?8 THE CONDOR VoL. VII The California Sage Sparrow BY JOSEPH GRINNELL Amphispiza belli canescens new subspecies. SUBSPECIFIC CHARACTERs--Resembles `4mphispiza belli be//i, but size somewhat greater, and coloration throughont very much paler; resembles `4mphisp,za belli nevadensis, bnt size very much less, and coloration slightly darker. TYPE--? adult; No. 5789, Coll. J. G.; Seymour Creek Meadow, 55oo feet elevation, Mount Pinos, Ventura County, California; June ?7, I9O4; collected by J. Grinnell. DESCRIPTION--Lower surface white; sides, flanks and crissnm faintly tinged with ochraceous buff, the former with narrow inconspicuous dusky shaft-streaks; sides of chest more distinctly streaked with slate; spot in middle of breast, submaxillary stripe, lores, region immediately beneath eyes, an_d extreme forehead, slate; spots above lores, one on forehead just back of cul- men, eyelids, maxillary region and throat, pure white; rest of head, including auricular region, sides of neck and nape, clear gray; back and rump drab gray; middle of back with narrow dusky shaft-streaks; wings and tail blackish, strongly edge.d with pale clay color; outer web of outer tail-feather, and inner web of same for about 2 millimeters at tip, abruptly white. MEASUREMENTS-- .4. b. nevadensisJ Wing Av. 80.2 Max. 8?. 5 Min. 78. 6 c? c? ? Tail Av. 8I.? . Max. 85.5 Min. 79. .4. b. nevadensis)Wing Av. 74.I Max. 75 Min. 73.5 4 ?? ?? ? Tail Av. 76 Max. 76.5 Min, 75. .4. b. canescens I Wing Av. 71 Max. 73 Min. 69. Io c? c? Tail Av. 77 Max. 79 Min. 74.5 `4. b. canesceus {Wing Av. 67 Max. 68 Min. 65. 7 ? ? ? Tail Av. 73 Max. 75 Min. .4. b. bel/i t Wing Av. 67.8 Max. 7I Min. 65. ? c? ? Tail Av. 74.a Max. 77.5 Min. 7 o. ,4. b. bel/i ) Wing Av. 64. 7 Max. 66. 5 Min. 63. I3 9 9 {Tail Av. 7I Max. 73 Min. 68. RANGE--The elevated Upper Sonoran and Transition sage valleys of the southern Sierras of California, slightly migratory to lower levels in winter. Specimens examined from: Piute Mts., northeastern Kern Co.; lower Cuddy Canyon, southern Kern Co., near Tejon Pass: valleys in im- mediate vicinity of Mt. Pinos, Ventura Co.; near Pine Flats, bead of Tujunga Canyon, Sierra San Gabriel, Los Angeles Co.; San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles Co. (winter); Whitewater, Riverside Co. (winter). REMaR<s?This is the form which myself and others have repeatedly recorded from Los Angeles county as nevadensis. But that the two are altogether different is readily seen on comparison of the Los Angeles county specimens with true nevadensh' from Nevada, Arizona, and the Colorado desert in southeastern Califor- nia. (In the latter two localities nevadensis occurs only in winter.) Although canescerts presents characters in the aggregate fairly intermediate between belli and nevadensis, the gap is so definite between canescerts and belli, that were it not for current rulings being overwhelmingly against it, I should not hesitate to con- sider them specifically distinct. Each of the three forms occupies separate breed- ing areas. But in the mountains of Los Angeles county, as I have already noted (Auk, XV, Jan. I898, p. 58), canescens (recorded as nevadensis) and belli doubtless breed within a very short distance of one another. This is also probable in Ven- tura county where Mr. O. W. Howard has taken several sets of eggs of the "sage sparrow" (canestens) in Lockwood Valley three to five miles southeast of Mr. Pinos. The fact that in the extensive series of Amphispizae in the collection of the Cali- fornia Academy of Sciences, as well as among my own specimens, not a single in- termediate is to be found between canescens and belli (or canescerts and nevadensis, for that matter) argues for the distinctness of the forms. There is but one record that I can find of "intermediates" between belli and nevadensis. Dr. A. K. Fisher states in the Death Valley Report (N. Am. Fauna No. 7, May x893, p. 98) that "the