36 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 pabt i 



William Brewster (1902) says of its distribution: "This bird appears 

 to be strictly confined to the Cape Region, where it is nowhere very 

 common. Mr. Belding considered it more numerous in the mterior 

 than near the coast, but Mr. Frazar found it in the greatest numbers 

 at Triunfo and San Jose del Cabo, the latter place being, of course, 

 directly on the coast. About La Paz, however, only a single specimen 

 was seen, and but one was obtained on the Sierra de la Laguna. 

 At Santiago four were taken, and there is a skin in the collection from 

 San Jose del Rancho. The bird is doubtless resident wherever 

 found." 



Its haimts and habits are probably similar to those of adjacent 

 races. 



Eggs. — The measurements of 15 eggs average 24.3 by 18.1 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 25.7 by 19.8, 

 22.8 by 18.0, and 23.4 by 16.7 millimeters. 



Distribution 



Range. — The San Lucas pyrrhuloxia is resident in Baja California 

 from about lat. 27° N. (San Ignacio, Santa Rosalia) south to Cape 

 San Lucas. 



Egg dates. — Baja California: 6 records, April 19 to August 5; 

 3 records, May 3 to May 9. 



PHEUCTICUS LUDOVICIANUS (Linnaeus) 



Rose-breasted Grosbeak 



PLATE 4 



Habits 



When I was a boy we never looked for the rose-breasted grosbeak 

 about our home grounds; if we wanted to see it, we had to hunt for it 

 in the second-growth woodlands, far from human dwellings, on the 

 wooded borders of swamps and streams, or wherever there was a 

 dense growth of small trees and bushes along the edges of the woods 

 or neglected pastures. Such places are still its favorite haunts. 

 But, within the past 50 years it has, like that other woodland dweller, 

 the wood thrush, learned to find sanctuary and a congenial home 

 closer to the haunts of man in our towns, villages, and suburban 

 grounds, where we can more easily enjoy its beauty of plumage and 

 the richness of its song. The rear half of my grounds is well wooded 

 with trees and shrubbery, though close to the center of the city, and 

 here a pair of these grosbeaks have for several years built their nest 

 and reared their young within a stone's throw of brick buildings. 



