Page:Condor15(5).djvu/9

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Sept., 1913 CALIFORNIA ?ORM$ O? PIPILO M.4CUL.4Tt/S 173 Specimens examined from the following localities. Tulare County: Trout Creek. Inyo County: Lone Pine; Independence; Kearsarge Pass; Carroll Creek; Cottonwood Creek. Placer County: Dutch Flat; Blue Canyon. Stanis- laus County: Modesto. San Joaquin County: Tracy; Tracy Lake. Solano County: Vacaville. Sacramento County: Sacramento. Amador County: Carbondale. Yolo County: Grand Island. Sutter County: Marysville Buttes. Butte County: Oroville. Tehama County: Tehama. Shasta County: ' Tower House; McCloud River near Baird. Siskiyou County: Callahan; Summerville. Total number of specimens, 66. Remarks.--The range of this subspecies in California practically corresponds with that ascribed by Ridgway (?9o?, p. 4?6) to megalonyx as distinguished by him from atratus in the southern part of the state. The name megalonyx has since been determined to apply to the southern subspecies, and at least one writer (Goldman, ?9o8, p. 2o5) has used the name montanus for the form here called [alcinellus, in recognition o.f its evident difference from typical megalonyx. From montanus, however, it is much more widely separated, and I have seen no California specimens of this o.r any other form of Pipilo maculatus which bear close resemblance to that race. 10ipilo rnaculatus curtat-us Grinnell. NEVADA Town?;?;. ?t:?pe Locality.--Pine Forest Mountains, Humboldt County, Nevada. Distinguishing Characters.--The palest colored of the California races of Pipilo maculatus. Besides the general pale coloration and greater extent of white markings, it differs from megalonyx in much shorter hind-toe-and-claw. From P.m. montanus, to the southward and eastward in Arizona, it differs in slightly darker coloration, shorter wing and much shorter tail. From P.m. arcticus it differs in darker colors and slightly longer tail and hind-toe-and-claw. J?ange.--Known to occur in California only in the extreme northeastern corner of the state (the Warner Mountain region), possibly in certain of the desert mountain ranges (Panamint, Inyo, and White mountains), and in win- ter in the valley of the Colorado River. Also found in northern Nevada and eastern Oregon (Grinnell, ?9?, p. 3?o). Specimens examined from the following localities. Colorado River: 5 miles south of Needles; Chemehuevis Valley; Riverside Mountain; Fort Yuma TCOllection of A. B. Howell). Warner Mountains: Sugar Hill; Dry Creek. otal number of specimens, 7. Remarks.--In the Sixteenth Supplement to the A. O. U. Check-List (?9?2, p. 386) this subspecies is denied recognition, as being inseparable from /?. m. arcticus. As according to the range ascribed to arcticus in the Check-List (?9?o, p. 279 ) the latter does not approach Nevada or California in the breeding season any nearer than southern Alberta and southcentral Montana, this does not seem to have been a very logical conclusion to reach. The area inhabited by curtatus is included in the range of Pipilo m. ?nontanus as given in the Check-List, and if the former is to be relegated to synonymy it should, according to this treat- ment, be placed with montanus. There is, however, no difficulty whatever in distinguishing these two forms. The conclusion in the Sixteenth Supplement, though illogical when taken in connection with the treatment all the related subspecies are accorded in the Check-List, is really nearer the truth of the matter, in that curtatus actually is in some respects more nearly like arcticus than montanus. Through the courtesy of Dr. Louis B. Bishop I have been privileged to borrow from his collection a series of eleven specimens of P.m. arcticus, all breeding adults, including four males and three females from southeastern Sas.- katchewan and Alberta and thus_ practically topotypes of the subspecies. Comparison of these birds with the available series of curtatus gives the following results: The males of the two subspecies are very closely similar. In