On Wed, 13 Apr 1994, Mike Patterson wrote:

>
>
> Alan Contreras and I were doing some bird banding in the Mt. Jefferson
> Wilderness in 1992. We captured at least 5 Brewer's type sparrows in
> a dwarf hemlock stand at about 5000 ft. We were struck by the odd
> quality of the song. It had some wierd extra bits to it. At the time
> we eliminated the possibility of Timberline Sparrow based mostly on our
> understanding of the range (northern Rockies).
> I still have a corpse in the freezer. If anyone has measurements beyond
> "slighlty bigger" or a tape recording of the song, I would appreciate
> the information.
>
>
> --
> **************************************************************
> Mike Patterson, Astoria, OR
> mpatters at ednet1.osl.or.gov
> **************************************************************

Godfrey (Birds of Canada) gives a maximum wing chord length for breweri of
62 mm; all the adult taverneri in the UBC collection range from 62-65 mm,
most of them around 63. That should be a quick test. If anyone is really
interested in the latest on this story, they should write Bruce
McGillivray, Provincial Museum of Alberta, 12845-102 Ave., Edmonton, AB
T5N 0M6.
Richard J. Cannings cannings at bcu.ubc.ca
Cowan Vertebrate Museum vertmus at bcu.ubc.ca
Department of Zoology, (604)822-4665
University of British Columbia (604)822-2416 (FAX)
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 CANADA