Page:Condor14(5).djvu/6

 160 THE' CONDOR Vol. XIV nearly full growu. The fmale parent which was feeding them was also secured. "The crop and stomach of an adult contained the soft leaf ends of Pinus murravana and ,'tbics rnagnifica, besides seeds and portions of various insects. "Unlike the Pine Grosbeak living in the far north, these birds probably find it unnecessary to migrate any great distance in winter. If the weather is too severe on the alpine summits, they can in a moment drop down into the deep carlons which furrow the western flank of the Sierra, and find a temperate climate and abundance of food." In a recent letter (August 2, 1912), Mr. Price advises that with the excep- tion of the fact that he has observed the bird in the summer time of various years since, he has no further notes than those already published. Ey reference it xvill be seen that Price does not include this species in his account of "Some Winter Birds of the High Sierras" (Condor, vx, p. 70), and in answer to my question he states that he has no winter record of the bird at all. Mr. Joseph Grinnell I*ig. 63. UPPER PORTION OF THE FORN[ MEADOW, LOOKING SOUTH; PHOTO TAKEN JUNE 11, 1911; COMPARE WITH FIG. 62 informs me that as ornithologists living in the Sierran foothills have never re- corded the bird as a winter nilgrant or winter visitant and that as he found the Alaskan bird, P. e. alascensis, resident in the Kowak Talley, it can be quite safely assumed, by inference, that the Californian bird is likewise permanently resident in the Boreal zone of the Sierras. Price described the California Pine Grosbeak as a subsccies somewhat in opposition to the canons of the American Ornithologists union; for he says "I have seen no examples of intergradation. However, these may be expected from the higher mountains northward." Mr. Joseph Grinnell informs me that no birds have ever been recorded north of Placer County, except those of another form near Mount Baker, Washington, and in British Columbia. On account of there being no examples of intergradation (due to the bird's isolated habitat) and to sharply defined differences existing in shape of bill between this and