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 76 THE CONDOR Vol. XV pace. While excessively fond of the wilds, he enjoys a boon companion and dislikes absolute solitude, especially that of the lonely bivouac. A keen sportsman and a crack shot, Brooks knows guns as a pianist knows his keyboard. He has killed every kind of big game in British Columbia save Cougars, which have curiously enough eluded him, and the walls of his lodge on the shores of Okanagan Lake are covered with ti'ophies. He is also "leftenant" in the Canadian Militia and instructor in rifle shooting. One shudders to think how our artist might have been a mere globe-trotting game-killer, or even a dapper officer in the English army, a cock among guinea-fowls, if the scientific instincts had been less carefully schooled, or if the seeds of the ornithophilic passion had not found early lodgment in prepared soil. Artist, bird-lover, scientist, sports- man, explorer, genial host,' and loyal friend---this is a very Pleasant combination: and that it is embodied in a single unassuming personality, and a highly efficient one, is a matter of sincerest congratulation to those who know Allan Brooks. It is to him we look with confidence for a series of bird paintings, the most elaborate and beautiful which have ever been produced in America. LEUCOSTICTE TEPHROCOTIX D.4WSONI A' NEW RACE OF ROISY FINCH FROM THE SIERRA NEVADA By JOSEPH GRINNELL (Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California) HEN judiciously employed, "geographical reasoning" proves of positive help in guiding the student towards the ascertainment of the results of speciation. Experience has taught us to expect that geographic dif- ferences of great or less degree are to be found in any animal of wide range, particularly if this range includes two or more areas each of which has marked faunal peculiarities. In other words, we are often able to anticipate the existence of a distinct new race of animal in a given region, on the basis of our knowledge of other animals in the same region, without ever having seen a specimen. In spite of frequent aspersive comment directed towards those who have mployed it, this is a perfectly good application of inferential reasoning. Need- less to. say, however, only the establishment of the concrete facts in the case, based upon conscientious study of actual specimens, can be regarded as adequate grounds for publishing a new name. For many years students of North American birds have known that a certain species of Rosy Finch (Leucosticte tephrocotis) existed both on the high moun- tains of east-central California and on the northern Rocky Mountains of British America, even to eastern Alaska. But, notwithstanding critical attention from several keen systematists, no differences deemed worthy of separate naming have been published. In fact, this species of Leucosticte has been i'emarked upon as a Fringillid of relatixtely great range, and yet one in which geographic vt/riation is notably lacking. The present wriier believes these conclusions to have been faulty, due. in major part to lack of sufficient series of specimens in the various seasonal and age plumages. For he is now so fortunate as to have at his disposal for study the practically ideal material indicated beyond, and this study leads to an opposite view.