^*''i9l4"'^^] SwARTH, California Forms of Psaliriparus. 513 



Benito County (nos. 6338, 6339, Mailliard coll.). These are ap- 

 preciably paler than comparable specimens from southern Cali- 

 fornia ; and from the geographical position of the station the possi- 

 bility is suggested of their being intergrades with P. m. calif orniciis, 

 which may be found to inhabit the adjacent San Joaquin Valley. 

 Unfortunately there is not a single specimen of bush-tit available 

 from this valley, the greater part of which is a treeless plain and 

 unsuited to the species. There are parts, however, as in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of the San Joaquin River, where the birds occur, 

 recorded in fact from one or two points, and it will be of interest to 

 learn to which of the races they belong. 



San Francisco Bay District (specimens from Alameda, Contra 

 Costa, and Sonoma counties). Many of the birds from the im- 

 mediate vicinity of Berkeley and Oakland are strikingly dark col- 

 ored, but this is undoubtedly due to staining of the feathers from 

 the smoke of the nearby cities. Gardens and parks, filled with 

 shrubbery, tempt the birds into the towTis, to within a short dis- 

 tance of manufacturing and business centers, resulting in sooty 

 plumage in the bush-tits, as with other species. 



Tliree birds from Mount Diablo, Contra Costa County, as well 

 as eight from the nearby station of Walnut Creek, are all clearly 

 referable to minimus, demonstrating in this as with other species of 

 animals, the relationship to the coast fauna of the inhabitants of 

 this mountain, the easternmost outpost of the coast range at this 

 point. 



A series of nine specimens from Sonoma County (immediately 

 north of San Francisco Bay), though on the whole referable to mini- 

 mus, contains several light colored birds, possibly an indication of 

 intergradation with californicus of the Sacramento Valley. 



Northern Coast District (specimens from Marin, Mendocino, 

 and Humboldt counties). This region should produce the darkest 

 colored bush-tits of any portion of the state, reasoning from meteor- 

 ological and geographical conditions, but the fact remains, sur- 

 prising as it seems, that specimens from the southern portion of 

 this region do not average as dark as those from the San Diegan 

 district, and many of them are distinctly pale colored. One juve- 

 nile (no. 24099) is very similar to comparable examples of californi- 

 cus from the Sacramento Valley. Certain July adults from the 



