184 Price, Description of a Nexv Pine Grosbeak. 



"Auk 



.April 



seasonal changes or immaturilj ; the scapulars and feathers of the central 

 back with only the faintest trace of duskj centers; wings and tail dusky, 

 the middle and greater coverts tipped with whitish, tertials edged exte- 

 riorly with the same, secondaries, primaries and the tail-feathers faintly 

 edged with grayish. 



Type, $ ad. (No. 3430, Museum Leland Stanford, Jr., University; Pyra- 

 mid Peak, near Echo Post Office, El Dorado Co., California, altitude about 

 7500 feet, July 28, 1S96; collected by W. W. Price and C. S. Dole.) 

 General color clear ash gray, the wings and tail markings similar to the 

 male, top and sides of head, back of neck and a few splashes on breast, 

 bright tawny yellow, the posterior upper tail-coverts with a faint wash of 

 the same color. 



Young $ and $ nearly full grown, indistinguishable, similar to the 

 adult 9, but plumage more tawny gray, the quills and tail-feathers slaty 

 black, the tips of the greater coverts light fawn, the tertials broadly edged 

 with a lighter shade of fawn ; the secondaries broadly edged with grayish 

 white, the primaries and tail-feathers narrowly edged with slate gray. 



Nestlings scarcely able to leave the nest, very similar to the older young, 

 but with the throat more distinctly tawny, plumage very immature, the 

 first cottony plumules still persisting on the ends of the coverts. 



This apparently very distinct Piiiicola is an inhabitant of the 

 higher Sierra Nevada Mountains of Central California. It is 

 strictly an alpine species; I have never seen it below 7000 feet 

 and I have taken it near timber-line. It is peculiar to the belt of 

 tamarack pine {Finns murrayana)^ and the beautiful red alpine 

 fir {Abies magnifica), and most of the specimens taken were in 

 groves of this latter tree. According to my observations this bird 

 is uncommon, for, during several vacations spent in the higher 

 Sierra, I have met with it only on rare occasions. The first time 

 I saw this Grosbeak was on the evening of August 5, 1892, near 

 Pyramid Peak. I was returning to my camp, along the margin of 

 a shallow alpine lake, bordered by a dense growth of Abies 

 mag/iijica, when a grayish bird flew fearlessly to the edge of the 

 water within a few feet of me. The color was so very similar to 

 that of Townsend's Solitaire, Myadestes townsendii, 1 might in the 

 twilight have passed it for that species, had I not caught a glimpse 

 of its large and heavy bill. I secured it, and to my surprise found 

 it an adult female Pinicola, the first I had ever seen from Cali- 

 fornia. I saw no more that summer though I spent over a month 

 in the higher altitudes. 



