136 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



Astragalinus psaltria breeds abundantly in California, especially in the 

 central portions, but does not appear to go much further northward. It visits 

 northwestern Mexico in winter. 



Astragalinus psaltria arizonae (Coues). 

 Arizona Goldfinch. 



This form is represented in Mr. Frazar's collection by a perfectly typical 

 specimen — a male taken at San Jose del Cabo on October 31, 1887. It has 

 not been previously reported from any part of Lower California, although it 

 has occurred once before on the Pacific Coast (Haywards, Alameda county, 

 California^). I have long entertained doubts regarding the wisdom of recog- 

 nizing it as subspecifically distinct from psaltria. It is true that the two are 

 sufficiently milike to be distinguished at a glance, but they intergrade and do 

 not appear to have separate habitats. Thus from southern Arizona and New 

 Mexico and northern Mexico, the supposed home of arizonae, my collectors 

 have invariably sent me at least a dozen specimens of j^saltria to one of arizonae. 

 Indeed, there seems to be no known region or locality which yields exclusively 

 or even chiefly the so-called arizonae. These facts suggest that the latter name 

 applies merely to aberrant specimens of psaltria which represent more or less 

 well marked approaches to the wholly black-backed A. p. mexicanus, or, as 

 Mr. Eidgway has lately put the case, that arizonae " is scarcely a definite form, 

 but is rather a series of specimens connecting A. p. psaltria and A. p. mexi- 

 canus, hardly two examples being exactly alike, and the geographic range not 

 very definite." '^ 



Spinus pinus (Wils.). 



Pine Siskin. 



Chri/somitris pinus Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mas., V. 1883, 537 (Cape Region). 

 Spinus pinus Brtant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2J ser., II. 1889, 298 (Cape Region). 



Mr. Belding's mention of " one observed . . . in a Qockoi A. psaltria, with. 

 which, in California, the species frequently associates " remains the only record 

 for tbe Cape Region. Neither date nor locality is given in this connection, 

 but in his Land Birds of the Pacific District ^ Mr. Belding states that " a 

 single specimen," presumably the one just referred to, was " shot at La Paz, in 

 Lower California, in the winter of 1882." 



On San Pedro Martir, according to Mr. Anthony, the Pine Siskin is " well 

 distributed through the pines . . . but undoubtedly not common ; no nests were 



1 Emerson, Zoe, I. 1890, 44. 



2 Birds N. and Midd. Amer., pt. L 1901, 116. 



8 Occ. Papers Calif. Acad. Sci., II., Land Birds Pacif. District, 1890, 139. 



