184 Price, Description of a New Pine Grosbeak. ree 
seasonal changes or immaturity; the scapulars and feathers of the central 
back with only the faintest trace of dusky 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, 2 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, 1896; 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 2 nearly full grown, indistinguishable, similar to th 
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 /zico/a 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 (Pinus 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 Adzes 
magnifica, 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, AZyadestes townsendi, | 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 /2nzcola, the first I had ever seen from Cali- 
fornia. I sawno more that summer though I spent over a month 
in the higher altitudes. 
