134 



THE CONDOR 



Vol. X 



{CyanocUta s. carhonacea) of Marin Comity, being strikingly similar to the Blue- 

 fronted Jay ( O''''^''^'"''^^'''' ^'- -Z^'''^^^^'^''''-^') of the Sierras. This is especially strange 

 from the fact that the redwood and Douglas spruce forest of western Sonoma 

 County is practically a continuation of the fir forest of the more northern coast, 

 differing comparatively slightly in humidity and temperature from that part of it 

 where the dark form of steUeii is found. Apparently there should be a slight, 

 regular, continuous gradation from the sfcllcri of the North to the form named by 

 Grinnell carhoiiacea or Coast Jay, which extends from Marin down the coast to 



Monterey County. But 

 instead of this on the 

 Sonoma coast we find a 

 big break, and here, al- 

 most on the northern 

 boundary of carboiiacea 

 — some sixty or seventy 

 miles north of San Fran- 

 cisco, as the crow flies — 

 is a form closely resem- 

 bling, if not identical 

 with the fro7i talis of the 

 Sierra region, much 

 lighter in color than the 

 form north of its habitat 

 and of that but a few 

 miles south of it, tho 

 the character of the cli- 

 mate and forest which it 

 inhabits has changed but 

 little either way. Breed- 

 ing specimens of this 

 light form were obtained, 

 and a nest with young 

 discovered. 



A couple of days after 

 our arrival in this local- 

 ity we were joined by 

 H. H. Sheldon and his 

 friend "Fy" Taylor, 

 who had come on a fish- 

 ing and oological exped- 

 ition. On the morning 

 of May 15 the bo3^s start- 

 ed in a buggy for a trip 

 by way of private ranch roads to the North Fork of the Gualala, Sheldon kindly volun- 

 teering to take my collecting pistol and try to pick up a few desiderata on the way. 

 When about half way down the grade from the top of the ridge to the South Fork 

 he espied a desirable specimen and jumped out to try and get it. A few yards from 

 the road he ran into a Monterey Hermit Thrush {Hylorichia g-. slevini) in plain 

 sight on its nest, which proved to contain but one egg. The nest was built in a 

 large dead branch, some twenty feet long, of a bay tree, which had apparantly been 

 broken from its parent by the weight of snow in an unusual snowstorm that oc- 



MONTEREV HERMIT THRUSH ON NEST; SONOMA COUNTY, 

 CALIFORNIA, MAY 17, 190S 



