430 University of California Puhlkaiions in Zoology [Vol.21 



race of that section. They were few in number and were in worn 

 plumage. Since that time the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology has 

 acquired an excellent series of brown towhees from the coast of 

 Monterey County, including fifteen fresh-plumaged skins from Seaside, 

 immediately north of the town of Monterey. The fact now perfectly 

 plain is that these Monterey specimens are practically indistinguish- 

 able from southern California birds ; they are not of the reddish type 

 of coloration that distinguishes the brpwai towhee of the San Fran- 

 cisco Bay region. The name Pipilo fuscus crissali^ therefore applies 

 to the brown towhee of southern California, from Monterey south at 

 least to the Mexican boundary. Thus the brown towhees of the imme- 

 diate coastal region are divided as follows : Semcula in north-central 

 Lowxr California, not extending north of the international boundary ; 

 crissalis ranging from about the boundary line north to Monterey ; 

 and from Monterey nortlnvards a reddish colored form that is as yet 

 unnamed. The last-mentioned race we propose to call : 



Pipilo fuscus petulans, new subspecies 



San Francisco Brown Towhee 



Type. — Male; no. 36439, Mus. Vert. Zool.; Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, 

 California; January 26, 1901; collected by J. Grinnell; original no. 4576. 



Distinguishing characters. — The reddish tone of general coloration 

 is the most noticeable feature of this subspecies ; it exhibits the extreme 

 of ruddiness seen in all the brown towhees. In size it is intermediate 

 betw^een the interior race carolae and the southern coast form crissalis. 

 (See accompanying table of measurements, and Swarth, 1918, p. 121.) 



Range. — The north-central coast region of California from the 

 vicinity of Santa Cruz north to Humboldt Bay ; in typical form, in 

 the immediate vicinity of San Francisco Bay. The few specimens 

 available from Humboldt County, while referable, we think, to the 

 present form, are appreciably less ruddy and slightly larger, thus 

 showing a tendencj^ toward the condition in carolae. South of the 

 San Francisco Bay region, there is intergradation with crissalis in 

 northeastern Monterey County. Specimens from the Salinas Valley, 

 at the same latitude as Monterey but some twenty miles inland, show 

 a decided approach toward the reddish coloration of petulans. 



It further develops from our renewed study of the brown towhees 

 that the seemingly rather isolated colonies of this species resident in 

 the interior valleys of southern Oregon differ suflficiently from the 

 subspecies carolae as now restricted to warrant naming. This we do 

 as follows : 



