166 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



But Dr. Grinnell (1927) said that "this is certainly not the case, for 

 a considerable number of October and November examples, thus in 

 new autumn plumage, show the character to be an innate one. In 

 this connection it should go without saying that in one-molt birds 

 like Sayomis only early fall plumages should be used for the deter- 

 mination of finely manifested color characters." 



The San Lucas phoebe ranges north in Lower California to about 

 latitude 29°. 



J. S. Rowley writes to me : "The habits of this phoebe are identical 

 with those found to the northward. From Miraflores and Todos 

 Santos, I took several sets, one containing four eggs, three containing 

 three eggs, and one with two eggs, all full complements. All these 

 nests were typically made of mud and were saddled to the side of a 

 boulder near water." 



There are two sets of eggs, with the nests, of this phoebe in the 

 Thayer collection in Cambridge, taken by W. W. Brown, Jr., at 

 Comondu on May 5 and 7, 1909; each nest contained three eggs. 

 One nest was on the side of a shack near a brook, and the other was 

 on a crossbeam against the wall in a shack, also close to a brook. 

 The nests are typical of the species, made externally of small pellets 

 of mud, mixed with dried grass stems and fine shreds of inner bark, 

 and lined with finer pieces of similar materials. 



The eggs are indistinguishable from those of the species elsewhere. 



The measurements of 37 eggs average 19.24 by 14.69 millimeters; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 20.6 by 14.8, 18.9 by 

 15.4, and 17.8 by 13.6 millimeters. 



SAYORNIS SAYA SAYA (Bonaparte) 



SAY'S PHOEBE 



PLATES 19, 20 



HABITS 



This large phoebe, clad in pleasing shades of gray and brown, 

 sharply contrasted with its black tail, replaces throughout a large por- 

 tion of western North America our familiar eastern phoebe, which it 

 resembles in many of its haunts and habits. It is as much at home 

 among the western ranches as our eastern bird is about our New 

 England barnyards, equally fond of human company, and often 

 building its nest on or about, or even in, the rancher's buildings. 

 It is a wide-ranging species, breeding as far north as central Alaska 

 and as far south as northern Mexico. It is a summer resident only in 

 the northern portion of its range, where it is one of the earliest ar- 

 rivals in the spring, but it is found all winter in southern California, 

 Arizona, and New Mexico. 



