SAN LUCAS ROBIN 67 



Robin (Merula confinis Baird), the beautiful new Snowbird {J unco bairdi), and 

 other interesting species. * * * Only about a dozen Cape Robins were seen, 

 and these were all on the Laguna trail. About half were found singly, one as 

 low as 2,500 feet above sea level. 



Mr. Cipriano Fisher, an American, who had often hunted deer at Laguna, in- 

 formed me that Robins were sometimes abundant there. This may be the case 

 when the berries of the California Holly (Heteromeles) , which grows abundantly 

 in the neighborhood, are ripe. * * * The type specimen, shot by Xantus 

 at Todos Santos in summer, may have been a straggler from the mountains. 



During 1887 M. Abbott Frazar spent about nine months in Lower 

 California, collecting for William Brewster, and sent him over 150 

 specimens of this hitherto rare robin. Mr. Brewster (1902) writes: 



Mr. Frazar was the next to meet the St. Lucas Robin in its native haunts. 

 He found it first on the Sierra de la Laguna, during his ascent of this mountain 

 on April 26, 1887. It was common at this date, and by the end of May, exceed- 

 ingly abundant, for its numbers continued to increase during nearly the whole of 

 Mr. Frazar's stay, but up to the time of his departure (June 9) , it was invariably 

 seen in flocks, and none of the many specimens examined showed any indications 

 that their breeding season was at hand. The people living on the mountain 

 asserted that the birds do not lay before July. * * * 



During his second visit to La Laguna, Mr. Frazar saw in all only ten St. Lucas 

 Robins, — one on November 28, two on November 30, one on December 1, and 

 six on December 2. This led him to conclude that most of them leave the moun- 

 tains in winter, a supposition speedily confirmed, for about two weeks later 

 (December 18-25) he found them abundant at San Jose del Rancho. At this 

 place a few breed, also, for three were seen during July, and one of them, a female, 

 shot on the 27th, was incubating, and must have had a nest and eggs somewhere 

 in the immediate neighborhood. 



"The St. Lucas Robin," Brewster continues, "is evidently one of 

 the most characteristic species of the Cape Fauna, for it does not 

 range even so far to the northward as La Paz, and, according to Mr. 

 Bryant, is unknown to the people living in the central and northern 

 portions of the Peninsula/' This statement is correct, so far as I 

 know today, but Brewster then goes on to cite the record of a specimen, 

 supposed to have been taken by W. Otto Emerson at Haywards, 

 Calif. This record had long stood unchallenged in the literature, 

 until the curiosity of that critical student of California ornithology, 

 Dr. Joseph Grinnell, was sufficiently aroused to prompt him to examine 

 the specimen. After a critical examination and comparison with 

 pertinent material, he and Mr. Emerson both agreed that it was, in 

 all probability, merely an extremely pale individual of a female 

 western robin (see Condor, vol. 10, pp. 238-239). 



Nesting. — ''Mr. Frazar found a number of old nests which were 

 constructed precisely like those of the common Robin, and placed in 

 similar situations" (Brewster, 1902). J. Stuart Rowley was in the 

 Sierra de la Laguna during the last few days of May and the first part 

 of June 1933, and says in his notes that "these pale-colored robins 



