﻿42 FIELD AND FOREST. 



littoralis ?" Neither can I admit that the darker colors of griseinucha 

 "simply correlate with those of the generality of the varietal forms of 

 birds and mammals inhabiting the same region, remarkable for its 

 immense annual rain-fall and great humidity of climate," for the 

 simple reason that the amount of rain-fall in the Sitkan district is 

 probably as great, if not greater, than that of the Pribylov Islands and 

 coast of the neighboring mainland. Hence it will appear that I did 

 not " for the moment forget" any fact in this connection, while at 

 the same time it is also evident that the darker colors of griseinucha 

 are not so " easily explainable on climatic grounds." 



In conclusion I beg leave to state that of the five well-marked forms 

 of this genus now known in North America, only two, tephrocotis and 

 littoralis, have been proven to integrade, while the immense series ex- 

 amined, independent of extensive additional material since received, 

 was sufficient to indicate such a tendency if it existed. On the con- 

 trary, each one is defined by perfectly trenchant and stable characters, 

 such as would constitute a "species," in a properly restricted sense. 

 I accordingly have no hesitation in asserting that the distinct North 

 American species of the genus Leucosticte, Swainson, so far as known, ~ 

 stand as follows : 

 i. L. griseinucha, (Brandt.) — Aleutian Islands and coast of Alaska, 



from Norton Sound to Kadiak. 

 2. L. tephrocotis Swains. — Western Mountain regions of North Amer- 

 ica, north of 38 (breeding north of 49 .) with the 

 following ' ' geographical races : ' ' Typical tephrocotis : 



1 In the paragraph, above quoted, it is stated that " this form \littoralis\ has not 

 yet been taken on the ' southern part of the North Pacific coast,' unless Alaska can be 

 so considered." The words in quotation marks thus leave the reader to infer that a 

 statement of mine is referred to, but upon turning to my monograph I find nowhere 

 such words, or similar expression. In the paragraph above the one to which I refer 

 I am also misquoted, as follows : " The fact that littoralis has more gray on the head 

 than tephrocotis cannot be explained by stating that the former is more Northern in its 

 distribution, for such is not the case, since the breeding grounds \_ground~\ of var. 

 tephrocotis are [w] quite as far northward in the interior as those \Jhat\ of var. littora- 

 lis is on the coast." The words supplied in brackets being those used by me instead 

 of those which substitute them in the quotation. 



8 A careful computation of the average of the measurements, given by Mr. Allen, 

 (77 specimens of littoralis and 17 of tephrocotis,) indicates an average difference in 

 the length of the wing of .03 of an inch in favor of tephrocotis, and in the length of 

 the tail of .06 in favor of littoralis. My own measurements, however, of 154 specimens 

 of tephrocotis and 47 of littoralis decide both these measurements in favor of tephrocotis , 

 the excess being .08 for the wing and .07 for the tail ! 



