420 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



PARUS INORNAXUS MURINUS (Rldeway) 



SAN PEDRO TITMOUSE 



The San Pedro titmouse was originally described, as a new subspecies, 

 by Dr. Joseph Grinnell (Grinnell and Swarth, 1926) under the sub- 

 specific name affahilis, as the race confined to the Sierra San Pedro 

 Martin This region was included in the range of Mr. Ridgway's 

 murinus, which he (1904) understood to extend from Los Angeles and 

 San Bernardino Counties to the San Pedro Martir Mountains. 



Dr. Grinnell (1928), in a later paper, explains why Ridgway's name 

 should apply to the San Pedro Martir bird, why the name affahilis should 

 be discarded, and why it was necessary for him to give a new name to 

 the San Diego bird, which is now called transpositus. an appropriate 

 name under the circumstances I 



Dr. Grinnell (Grinnell and Swarth, 1926) says that the San Pedro 

 titmouse "is the darkest, most leaden colored, of any of the subspecies 

 of Baeolophus inornatiis, showing no trace of the brown tinge that is 

 apparent strongly in inornatus and somewhat less so in murinus" 

 [=transpositus]. 



As its habitat seems to be in the live-oak association, we have no 

 reason to think that its habits are any different from those of other 

 races of the species. 



The eggs are similar to those of the plain titmouse. The measure- 

 ments of 40 eggs average 18.0 by 13.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the 

 four extremes measure 19.8 by 14.5, 19.3 by 14.6, 16.2 by 13.1. and 16.5 

 by 12.2 millimeters. 



PARUS INORNATUS CINERACEUS (Ridffway) 

 ASHY TITMOUSE 



Far removed from its nearest allies, with none of the species in the 

 wide intervening area, the ashy titmouse lives in a ver>' restricted region 

 in the mountains of the Cape region, near the southern tip of Lower 

 California. William Brewster (1902) says that "it is a bird of the pine 

 forests which cover portions of the summit and upper slopes of the high 

 mountains near the southern extremity of the Peninsula. Here, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Belding, it is 'common from 3,000 feet altitude upward.' 

 On the Sierra de la Laguna Mr. Frazar found it quite as numerous in 

 December as in May and June. None of the specimens killed at the 

 latter season showed any indications of being about to breed, and the 

 eggs, like those of many other birds which inhabit these mountains, are 

 probably not laid much before midsummer." 



Ridgway (1904) characterizes it as "similar in coloration of upper 



