THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



mate, who, it is interesting to note in this connection, does not 

 assist in the task of incubation, and, in fact, is far more arboreal 

 in habits than the female. 



This Sierra Grouse, it should be remarked, proves to be a 

 heretofore undescribed geographical race or subspecies of the 

 Dusky or Blue Grouse inhabiting the mountainous portions of 

 the western United States. It was previously supposed that 

 Grouse from the Sierras were similar to those of the coast region 

 from Oregon to Alaska, but comparison of specimens shows that 

 the Sierra Grouse differs from both the Coast Range and the 

 Rocky Mountain forms and although the variety more closely 

 resembles the latter than the former, it has evidently been de- 

 rived from the Coast Range bird of which it is a paler, southern 

 representative. The new Grouse has been named Dendragapiis 

 ohscuriis sierrensis. 



A fourth California group, though not of a game bird, may 

 be mentioned in the present connection. It shows a family of 

 Yellow-billed Magpies with their bulky, domed nest, a structure 

 so large that two small villages were visited before a box big 

 enough to transport it safely was found. This species has a most 

 restricted range in the foot-hills of the Sierra and Coast Ranges in 

 middle California, and is yearly decreasing in numbers through 

 its habit of eating ground squirrels which have been poisoned 

 by farmers. 



Groups of these vanishing species are especially desirable 

 and the Museum is exerting itself to secure, while there is yet 

 time, material which shall show satisfactorily the nesting habits 

 of those of our birds which are rapidly nearing extinction. 



F. M. c. 



Mr. Walter Granger of the Department of Vertebrate 

 Paleontology reports having had good success in finding the small 

 and rare mammals of Eocene age for which he has been search- 

 ing in southwestern Wyoming. He likewise has obtained the 

 material to complete a skeleton of Uintatherium, one of the 

 enormous mammals which characterized the middle Eocene beds 

 of the central west. 



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