412 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vou. 17 
Diegan region representing a large number of record stations and 
illustrating practically all phases of variation, and by smaller series 
from a number of points along the coast north to San Francisco Bay. 
The most important point to be considered in a systematic study 
of birds from these several sections is the relationship borne by 
A. c. obscura, described from the San Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower 
California, to A. c. californica, with type locality at Monterey. The 
present treatment of the races of the California jay differs from that 
in most recent literature covering the subject (e.g., A. O. U. Check-list, 
1910, p. 225; Ridgway, 1904, pp. 827-331) in that it does not recognize 
the subspecies obscura. This race was described by Anthony (1889, 
p. 75) from specimens taken in the San Pedro Martir Mountains, 
Lower California. In a subsequent paper (1893, p. 239) the same 
writer asserts that birds from the San Pedro Martir Mountains and 
from San Diego County, California, are indistinguishable, and for 
some years past the name obscura has been generally used to cover 
the bird of the San Diegan region of California, as well as that of 
northern Lower California. Comparison of series from these points, 
however, with specimens from various coastal localities as far north 
as San Francisco Bay (including the vicinity of Monterey, the type 
locality of californica), shows that all belong to the same race, that 
there are no characters serving to distinguish specimens from these 
several places. Hence the name obscura must be considered a synonym 
of californica. 
Aphelocoma californica obscura was described as a smaller and 
darker colored bird than A. c. californica. Perpetuation of this error 
may have occurred through comparison of southern California speci- 
mens with others from the Sacramento Valley or the Sierra Nevada, 
in the belief that the latter were representative of typical californica. 
This assumption is wrong, however, and although jays from certain 
sections of California may readily be distinguished as, respectively, 
larger and paler, or smaller and darker, true californica and obscura 
both fall into the latter category. This point has been discussed and 
the same conclusion reached by Grinnell and Swarth (1913, p. 261), 
with reference to the status of the species as occurring in the San 
Jacinto Mountains, southern California. 
The range of Aphelocoma c. californica abuts that of A. c. ooclep- 
tica on the north, and that of A. c. immanis on the northeast. Whether 
or not there is continuous distribution of jays of this species over the 
length of Lower California, with consequent contact of the ranges of 
