Bill, .43 and .30; wing, 2.90; tail, 2.25. Ground-color
above fulvous-gray, beneath white; the streaks, above and
below, sandy-brown. Colors much as in P. _princeps_. _Hab._
Coast of California, to the mouth of the Colorado River;
Cape St. Lucas in winter … var. _rostratus_.
Bill, .33 and .22; wing, 2.55; tail, 2.00. Ground-color
above plumbeous-gray; beneath white; streaks
blackish-brown. Hab. Cape St. Lucas (resident?) …
var. _guttatus_.
[Illustration: _Passerculus savanna._]
A careful examination of the very large series of _Passerculus_ allied
to _savanna_ in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution, recently
made, brings us to the same conclusion as that reached in 1858,
namely, that, granting a single species extending over the whole of
North America, there are several geographical races in different
regions. Thus, taking the eastern bird as the standard, with its dark
colors, reddish wings, and deep yellow superciliary stripe, and the
comparative or entire absence of spots on the lower part of breast, we
have in the middle province, and to some extent in the western, a race
rather smaller, with more attenuated and longer bill, and paler
colors; the wings grayish, the yellow of head being scarcely
appreciable (var. _alaudinus_). On the coast of California, another
series of the size and proportions of the last, but with dark yellow
superciliary stripe,—the vertex-stripe even yellowish,—dark colors,
and the lower part of breast, as well as the throat, decidedly
streaked, as well as the jugulum (var. _anthinus_); and finally on the
northwest coast, from Puget Sound to Kodiak, a fourth race, much
larger than typical _P. savanna_, but absolutely undistinguishable in
color, proportion of bill, etc. (var. _sandwichensis_). _P. anthinus_
is not found north of California, but the other two of the western
race may occur together at any point of the coast north, perhaps, of
the Columbia River.
Passerculus savanna, BONAP.