MAR., I902. [ THE CONDOR 4 t Status of Cyanocitta stelleri carbonacea Grinnell. BY WALTER K. FISHER. HIS subspecies was described by Joseph Grinnell x from the Santa Cruz Mts., Santa Clara Co., California, and was subsequently rejected by the. A. O. U. Committee on Nomenclatures. Through the kindness of Mr. Robert Ridgway and Dr. C. Hart Merriam I have had the opportunity of examining all the material in the National Museum collection, and in that of the Biological Survey, including the types of Cfanocitta stelleri anneclens, Cyanocilla stelleri carlott?, and Cyanocitta stelleri j6'ontalis. Added to this is a small but pertinent collection forwarded by Mr. Grinnell, and a specimen from Mt. Shasta kindly loaned by Mr. John H. Sage. Especially valuable is a series of eleven birds from Vancouver Island, from the following localities: Victoria 2, Cadboro Bay 2, Goldstream 3, Departure Bay t, Comox 3. Corvus stelleri was described by Gmelin in Systema 2Vaturae I, t788, 'the type locality being clearly stated as Nootka Sound, Vancouver Id., B.C. ("in sinu Natka Americae borealis." I. c. p. 370.). Mr. Grinnell in lieu of specimens from Vancouver Id., took Sitka birds for comparison. Nootka SIMILARITY OF Sound is situated in n. lat. 49 3o' on the west coast of the island, considerably north of the middle, not "near the ALASKAN AND VAN- southern end" as Mr. Grinnell states. The s?ries of birds from Vancouver Id. is really intermediate, as one would COOV?;R m. BtRt)S. expect, between the Sitka birds, which are as dark as any from Alaska, and the Oregon-California series (carbonarea). The Vancouver Id. birds are however so close to the Sitka form that the two are practically the same. The slight difference is seen only when a ,eries of the'one is compared closely with the other. The two agree substantially in: shade of back, peculiar blue of underparts, amount of black on breast, and size. One specimen from Victoria in the extreme southern end of the island is aberrant in the shade of the underparts and the extent of black thereon, in which it approaches carbona- rea. The difference seems to be purely individual. On the other hand the birds from the coast of California, and from western Oregon are atonce separable from those o Vancouver, Id., both individually and 'en masse.' In the Alaskan and Vancouver Island DIFFERENCE BE- birds the black of the head extends eaudad over the breast, while in the series from California and Oregon this same ?'w?;?;tq BtRt)S VRO.?t marking as a rule does not go beyond the jugulum. In the northern bird the black encroaches more onto the sides. CALIFORNIA AND The black of the throat and breast of slelleri merges gradu- ally into the blue of the abdomen and suffuses this blue OREGON AND THOSE with a light wash, so as to make it relatively much darker than in carbonarea, and more toward a dull Antwerp-verd- FROM VANCOUVER ID. iter bluea. In carbonarea however, the back, throat, and j ugulum, instead of being a warm black, are usually more of a brownish slate, and the transition into the blue of the lower breast and abdo- men is rather abrupt. This blue is distinctly lighter than that of slelleri, and has little or none of the dilution with gray froin the jugulum. It is nearer the shade of blue offrontalis tho more intense, namely cerulean blue with a large propor- tion of Antwerp in its makeup. Occasionally a carbonarea will 'individually' tend J[CONDOR II, Nov., 19oo, 127. ?Auk XVIII, July ?9ot, 312. "Not considered worthy of recognition by name. ,3To get the general shade it is necessary to observe the bird at arm's length or even at a greater distance. See Ridgway's Nomenclature of Colors, pl. IX.
