"iScjS ] Me\rns, Txvo Nexv Birds from Santa Barbara Ids. 2 CQ 



(Original number, 11,345.) In somewliat worn and faded breeding 

 plumage. 



Diagnosis. — Similar to Carpodacus mcxicanus frontalis (Saj ), but with 

 larger legs and feet and heavier coloration. The striping of the under 

 surface is much broader than in typical specimens oi frontalis from the 

 eastern base of the Rockj Mountains. The wings are shorter, the tail 

 perhaps a tritie longer, and the bill much larger and more convex above. 

 It is, in fact, intermediate between the form oi frontalis inhabiting the 

 neighboring mainland of California and Carpodacus tncgregori Knihonv,^ 

 from San Benito Island, about twenty miles west of Cerros (or Cedros) 

 Island, Lower California, which latter (C. mcgregori) is but another step 

 towards Carpodacus ampins Ridgway of Guadalupe Island. 



C. dementis requires no comparison with typical C. 7)iexicanus or 

 with the subspecies ruberrimus from the peninsula of Lower Cali- 

 fornia. The form rhodocolpus, of the tableland of southwestern 

 Mexico, is quite similar in coloration, but much larger, with a 

 much smaller and differently shaped bill. 



Measurements. — Length, 162 mm.; alar expanse, 250; wing, 

 80; tail, 65; chord of culmen, 13; height of bill, 9; width of 

 maxilla, 8.8 ; width of mandible, 9 ; tarsus, 19 ; middle toe and 

 claw, 20.5. 



Remarks. — This House Finch was obtained by Mr. Charles H. 

 Townsend, in 1888 and 1889, on San Clemente and Santa 

 Barbara Islands. In August, 1894, Mr. Anthony and myself 

 obtained a good series of them on San Clemente; and, in 1897, 

 Mr. Joseph Grinnell collected specimens on Santa Barbara, San 

 Nicolas, and San Clemente. There are other specimens in the 

 Smithsonian collection, gathered by Drs. Palmer, Henshaw, 

 Cooper, and others from Santa Catalina, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, 

 and Santa Cruz Islands of the Santa Barbara group. 



Mr. Grinnell has published (1. c. pp. 16, 17, etc.) the following 

 important notices of this bird : " The most abundant bird of San 

 Clemente Island. Common everywhere, but most numerous in' 

 the deep gorges, whose walls are broken by dark caverns and 

 festooned with cactus. In such places, especially in the vicinity 

 of the water ' tanks,' the linnets fairly swarmed, and their full, 

 rollicking songs reverberated incessantly. Their food appeared to 

 be mainly composed of the fleshy cactus fruits, of which there 



' Auk, XIV, April 1897, p. 165. 



