Vol. 41, pp. 37-38 March 16, 1928 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHING ,MUSE} THE SONG SPARROW OF SAN MIGUEL ISLANDr CALIFORNIA. BY JOSEPH GRINNELL. Messrs. Chester C. Lamb and J. Elton Green visited San Miguel Island, off Santa Barbara, California, last fall for the prime purpose of obtaining for the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology representatives of the diminutive Gray Fox native to that island. The foxes were obtained, and also an interesting lot of birds among which a seemingly new race of Song Sparrow stands out conspicuously. This may now be named Melospiza melodia micronyx, new subspecies. Tijpe.—Male adult, no. 51535, Mus. Vert. ZooL; San Miguel Island, California; September 21, 1927; collected by Chester C. Lamb; orig. no. 7930. Diagnosis. — Among song sparrows in general (all the races of Melospiza melodia), coloration grayest; brown or brownish tones almost wanting; dark markings black and sharply contrasted against gray of dorsal surface or white of lower surface; bill, feet and especially claws weak; wing show-ing extreme of bluntness (longest primary not much longer than outer-most). Comparisons. — Nearest like the races already recognized from different islands in the Santa Barbara archipelago (see, for careful analysis of the characters of these, van Rossem, Condor, XXVI, 1924, pp. 217-220). Most nearly like M. m. graminea of Santa Barbara Island, but differs from it in broader and blacker dark streaking everywhere, in grayer ground-color dorsally, especially on the pileum, in paler flanks, in decidedly smaller claws, in blunter wing, and in slightly greater general size. From M. m. clementae, micronyx differs as it does from graminea, only for the most part (save as to general size) in greater degree. Especially on the top of the head is the greater amount of grayness apparent; the broad brown capital side-stripes in clementae are in micronyx reduced to very narrow ones, which play out altogether on the nape instead of ex-tending back to blend (in clementae) with the brownish tone of the dor-8— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 41, 1928. (37)
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