Nov., x9oo I THE CONDOR I2 9 Guiraca melanocephala, Swainson, was described from the "tablelands of Mex- ico," so I feel justified in restricting this name to the large-billed form from the southern Rocky Mountain region, thus leaving the smaller-billed Pacific Coast bird to be named. The English name, Black-headed Grosbeak, is so appropriate and of such long standing that it would be inconvenient to the bird people of Califor- nia, where the species is probably best known to the public, to replace it by a new one. The accompanying life-size drawings have been made by Mr. W. K. Fisher, and they show the differences in the size and outlines of the bills of the two races better than a page of measurements. Figures I and 2 are from the type of Z. m. microrhfncha, while Figures 3 and 4 are from a selected specimen of Z. melanocephala ( 3 ad., No. 2o7o, Coil. L. S, J. Univ.; Huachuca Mountains, Arizona, July ?7, I893'; collected by W. W. Price and R. L. Wilbur). Parrots in the United states About the middle of June there came into the Chiricahua Mountains, from Sonora, Mexico, probably, a flight of nine or ten parrots, scolding and chat- tering and calling in a language which was neither English nor Spanish, but may have been some Indian tongue, or, indeed, that of the old Aztecs of Mexico themselves. They appeared to come up the large canon, at the head of which I was encamped, to about midway of the mountains' height, where the oaks begin to give place to pine, and there they tarried--many of them I regret to say, for aye, for the timbermen in a pole-cutter's camp hard by, carried away by the novelty of the visitors, began slaughtering them, and captured one by a chance wounding from which it quickly recovered. And I, of course, must have a couple of specimens of this rare straggler (?). The remnant of that picturesque and interesting company, concluding perhaps, though wrongfully, that they were unwelcome to citizenship in this great republic, disappeared, returning, probably, to the land whence they came; and if they tell hard things of the'inhabitants of Arizona to their fellows in that country, and to such of its human inhabitants as speak t t?eir language, they can scarcely be blamed. The 'birds ?ere'?,ery busily engaged with the pine cones, and investigation of their stomachs showed nothing but a plentiful quantity of very immature pinones wrested from their cavities in the hearts of the hard, green cones by their powerfi?l beaks. The beaks, at their bases, as'well as nearly the entire under parts of the birds, were more or less begummed with the resin of the cones. The species is probably the Thick- billed Parrot (]?hynchopsitta pachyrh),n- cha)I learn upon reliable information that parrots have been seen in this range twice, at least, before---once two years ago. The two specimens I have are males, one, I presume a juvenile, as it ' lacks the beautiful red of the shoulders possessed by the other, which is larger and is less extensively colored as to other parts also. The Chiricahua range is a large, rough range of mountains and touches the Mexican line at its southern end, and, moreover, has been less hunted than the other border ranges, so that it is just possible the parrot may yet be found breeding there and added to our fauna. RICHARD D. LVSK. J:?. ]?rltachuca, ,4riz. The Eighteenth Congress of the American Ornithologists' Union will convene at Cam- bridge, Mass., on Nov. ?3th, when the usual programme of papers will be presented. Walter K. Fisher of Stanford University spent the three fi?onths from June to Septem- ber in the high Sierras of California collecting mammals for the Biological Survey. Win. W. Price has opened a preparatory school'for boys at Alta, Placer Co. Cal., a pleas- ant location on the Central Pacific Railroad in the Sierra Nevada Mts.
