Page:Condor3(2).djvu/13

 Mar., t9ot I THE CONDOR 41 stub and in two cases with onl, y a tiny jutting piece of bark for support or a slight depression caused by a wound in the tree. To this there was one exception. One pair, whose nest against the side of a large pine I had watched,from the date of its beginning to the'day the female laid her last egg in it, climbing almost daily up to inspect it, sometimes touch- ing her with my finger ere she would leave it, decided that such a location was too convenient for me, and built their next nest where I had to )ing' into requisitiona .oo-foot rope qn order to look into it, where it was 1ocaed far out:on the limb of:a large fi: The reason for the ufiiformly different nesting sites in the two localities is doubtless one of expediency, and may be owing to' the fact that in the lower locality where they are all built out on the branches, lizards are plentiful, while in the upper mountain, where they all select the tree trunks, there are no liz: ards to.be seen, and the jays are much more ]plentiful than below; and the little nestsof the hue .of the tree bark, and in fifty per centof the cases close in below a protecting stub, were nor notice- able from above, nor easily from any- where. One nest that I saw building was made almost exactly the shade ..of the bark of the dead pine against which it was built, by using plentifully of the weather-beaten remains of an old robin's nest in a tree close by. Of all the sets of eggs of this species recorded to date, as nearly as I can remember those of Messrs. Howard and Willard, taken in the Huachuca Mts., about 5o per cent have consisted of three eggs each, 3 per cent of four eggs, and 20 per cent of two eggs. We note with pleasure that our interesting contemporary, The Journal of lhe Maine Or- nitholo.ical Xociely, will be published as a bi- monthly commencing with its third volume, instead of a quarterly as heretofore. J. Merton Swain is announced as editor for x9ox. Note on the Name of the Black-headed rosbeak. The Pacific Coast grosbeak described in the November number of this maga- zine was previously named tr[edymrles capitalis with the following description, probably overlooked by Grinnell. If the characterization given by Baird be considered sufficient by those versed in questions of synonymy, then the vestern subspecies should be known as 7amelodia melanoccphala capitalis (Baird) as Z. microrhyncha and r. capitalis evi- dently refer to the same bird. "Taking the series from eastern Mex- ico (Orizaba and Miradot) and north- ward along the Rocky Mountains of the United States, we find the black of the head continuous, sharply defined by a gently curved outline behind, and with- ottt a trace of either the vertex or post- ocular stripes. This is the true melano- cephalus as restricted and may be re- garded as the Rocky Mountain form. The most western specimen is .t,24, from ,Fort Bridget; the most northern 9,355, from Stinking River, Northern Wyoming. All specimens from the Pacific Coast eastward to the Western base of the Rocky Mountains, including Cape St. Lucas and Western Mexico south to Colima differ from the Rocky Mountain series in having the posterior outline of the black hood ragged, and irregularly indented by the rufous of the nape, which always extends in a quite broad stripe towardmOre eye, along the side of the occiput, and quite fre- quently forms a conspicuous median vertex stripe, though the latter feature is sometimes not distinct. These differ- ences are observable only' in the males, and although slight, are yetsufficiently constant to justify distinguishing them as races. The Rocky Mountain form being the true melanocephalus, the name capilalis is proposed for the western one." (]-fisl. iV..4. tds., fd. Bds., ]], 7.) RtCHARD C. MCGREGOR, Ca.u Francisco.