256 U.S. NATIONAL JMUSEUM BULLETIN 237 paRT i 



The species was present at Portal in December 1925, and Kimball 

 took a pair near Paradise on February 20 of the same year (Peet collec- 

 tion). Grosbeaks have been seen quite frequently in the Santa Cat- 

 alinas diu-ing the Christmas bird counts. W. E. Lanyon wrote me of 

 finding a flock of about a dozen on Jan. 22, 1956, at El Sabino 

 Ranch. "This ranch is within the mesquite and saguaro association 

 at the southern base of the Santa Catalina Mountains, about 3,000 

 feet. There were enough hackberry trees on the ranch to make it 

 attractive to them, apparently. I had occasion to return on January 

 29 and the grosbeaks were still there." 



Distribution 



Range. — The Mexican evening grosbeak is resident from south- 

 eastern Arizona (Santa CataUna Mountains, Chiricahua Mountains) 

 south through Sierra Madre Occidental and the mountains of south- 

 eastern Mexico to Michoacan (Uruapan), Hidalgo (Tlanchinol), and 

 Oaxaca (Cerro San Felipe). Recorded in spring and fall in western 

 New Mexico (Reserve) and in winter in north central New Mexico 

 (Caja del Rio). 



Egg dates. — Southeastern Arizona: 10 records. May 16 to July 1; 

 5 records, June 1 to June 1 1 . 



Mexico: Chihuahua: 1 record, June 23. 



PYRRHULA PYRRHULA CASSINII Baird 



Cassin's Bullfinch 

 Contributed by Oliver L. Austin, Jr. 



Habits 



Cassin's bullfinch has the distinction of being the only Asiatic bird 

 first known to science from North America. Its habitat is north- 

 eastern Siberia, but its type locality is Nulato Island, Alaska, where 

 William Healy DaU collected the single specimen on which Professor 

 Baird based his original description of the form (1869). According 

 to DaU and Bannister's account (1869) of the capture of this historic 

 specimen on Jan. 10, 1867: 



"An Indian brought in a bullfinch alive, but badly wounded, which 

 he had shot from a small tree near the fort. He had never seen any- 

 thing like it before, nor had the Russians. On showing it to Captain 

 Everett Smith, some time afterward, he said he had seen several 

 flocks of the same species near Ulukuk. This specimen was a male, 

 with black eyes, bill, and feet. It was the only bird of the kind that 

 I saw during two years." 



