348 



brighter-colored than its southern -ally, the red being not only deeper 

 and more extended, but the brown of the body is darker and richer! 

 The fact that littoralis has more gray on the head than tephro- 

 cotis cannot be explained by stating that the former is more northern in its 

 distribution, for such is not the case, since the breeding grounds of var. 

 tephrocotis are quite as far northward in the interior as those of var. lit- 

 toralis is on the coast. We must, therefore, look to some other explana- 

 tions of these variations than the laws of climatic modifications which 

 are now recognized. The single instance of apparent correspondence 

 to a general rule of geographical variation is seen in L. griseinucha of 

 the Alaskan coast, which is more northern in its habitat than L. littoralis 

 of the more southern Korth -Pacific coast, and is also larger in size." 

 (Loc. cit., pp. 58, 59.) 



From much of the above I must beg leave to dissent, as matters of 

 fact. In the first place, L. australis was one of the forms to which I 

 especially referred, and which, because it has since been considered by 

 him as a species rather than a variety, Mr. liidgway leaves wholly out 

 of consideration in this connection. It is, however, one of the " forms of 

 Leucosticle" to be considered, and is also the most southern, the smallest, 

 and by far the brightest- colored* Climatologically considered, L. 

 tephrocotis is the next most southern,! is the next in size (at least is not 

 larger than variety littoralis}, and has the least ash on the head. The breed-' 

 ing-range of L. littoralis is not "known, and this form has not yet been 

 taken on the " southern part of the North-Pacific coast", unless Alaska 

 can be so considered. In size, it does not appreciably differ from L. 

 tephrocotis. It probably passes the summer in tte interior, to the west- 

 ward of the breeding- range of L. tephrocotis, and hence under rather more 

 northern climatic conditions. L. griseinucha is the most -northern and 

 much the largest. Its darker colors are easily explainable on climatic 

 grounds, or by " the laws of climatic modification which are now recog- 

 nized ". Its darker colors simply correlate with those of the generality of 

 the varietal forms of Birds and Mammals inhabiting the same region, 

 remarkable for its immense annual rain-fall and great humidity of 



*L. " atrata " I have purposely omitted in this consideration. If, however, it is any- 

 thing more than a melanotic phase of variety tephrocotis, it finds in that form a very near 

 ally, and if entitled to specific, or even varietal, recognition, gives further proof of the 

 generalization here proposed, it being much darker and smaller than tephrocotis. Mr. 

 Ridgway says of atrata, " the pattern of coloration is precisely similar to that of L. 

 tephrocotis, but the totally different tints (black or dusky-slate, instead of chocolate- 

 brown), and the very marked difference between the sexes,* separate it at once as a distinct 

 species. It may be suggested that it is a melanism of tephrocotis; but, if this were so, 

 there would be no such entire uniformity of characters as is exhibited throughout the 

 series of five specimens, while in tephrocoiis there is not the slightest sexual difference in 

 colors."* It will be noticed from the above that one of the strong points relied upon by 

 Mr. Ridgway as distinguishing atrata from tephrocotis is the supposed absence of sexual 

 variation in tephrocotis, and its presence in atrata, a distinction founded on error. 



t In this view I find I am sustained by Mr. C. E. Aiken, who says, " From these facts, 

 and information derived from other sources, I infer that the gray-cheeked variety 

 (littoralis) is the most northern race, and that many of them do not find their way so 

 far south [as Canon City, Colo.] except in severe winters. In this belief I am strength- 

 ened by the fact that, of sixty birds killed in Wyoming in 1870, all but one or two were 

 typical tephrocotis; that tephrocotis occupies, during the breeding season a more south- 

 ern locality than the preceding ^littoralis'], and winters, regularly, in the Rocky Mount 

 ains of Colorado, and even farther south; that australis inhabits the next lower section, 

 breeding in Colorado, and probably extending into the British possessions, but winter- 

 ing, for the most parj; especially in severe winters south of this Territory ; that 

 atrata, if anywhere common, must occupy a more southern locality." (Quoted from 

 Mr. Ridgway's Mon., I. c., pp. 62, 63.) 



*lS T ot italicized in the original. 



