Vo \oi* X ] •'•'•'•■ v '" Pigmy 223 



bird. I' would have been more proper for Mr, Nelson himself to 

 have de cribed the race, in view of his work in the genus; but 

 claiming to be engro ed with work upon newly arrived Central 

 American material, he courteously insisted upon the writ* 

 :i uming the nol <li ta teful function of describer. 



In order thai compari ons in both directions might be verified, 



en exampli of G. g. pinicola from tin- Biological Survey col- 

 lection were, through the kindness of Mr. H. \V. Henshaw, for- 

 warded to tli'- writer as a loan. These, together with the « 

 coa i material in the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 

 ami in the private collections of F S. Dagg< >tt, Jf. S. Swarth and 

 I. Grinnell, form the basis for tin- following characterizations. 



The assembling of this material unexpectedly pointed to the 

 • pediencj of further nomenclature! action. .Mr. II. S. Swarth 

 ha already pointed ou1 1 1 'ni\ . ( alif. Publ. Zool., Vol. 10, 1912, pp. 

 31, 32) ill'- peculiarity in coloration of four Pigmy Owls from 

 Vancouver I land. There now seem to be sufficient grounds for 

 recognizing an extreme northern Jnnni<l coast race, the range of 

 which is to be -plit oil' from that previously accorded to (',. g. 

 ealifornicum. The latter name is thu r< tricted to tin- subspet 

 inhabiting the coast belt from Washington to central California 



( Hose study ha resulted in the conclusion that there i- a depend- 

 ably constant tone of coloration in Pigmy Owls from any one 

 fa una I area, in other words thai much of the variation which sirikes 

 one at. firsl glance as being extraordinary, is accounted for by differ- 

 ence in wear and age Only adults have the top of head uniform 

 in shade with the dorsum, juvenals, even though full-grown and 

 full-feathered, having the top of the head slate gray of varying 

 ■ con picuously contrasted with tin- brownish of the back. 

 The writer is unable to find any so-called "phases" of coloration 

 in tlii pecie 



'I'lic designation of three forms of Glaucidium from the Pacific 

 Coast di tricl ma;., ((in a surprising innovation to ome, hut it is 

 nothing more than might he expected after a review of the t 

 a ahead- worked out in other genera of resident birds. The 

 reader should recall the present systematic treatmenl throughout 

 the sam< area, of Bubo, Otus, Dryobates, Cyanocitta, Certhia, and 

 Th rim in n 



