Eeprinted from The Condor, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 4B-46, Jan., 1926 



Northern Say Phoebe in California. — The Northern Say Phoebe (Sayomis sayus 

 yukonensis) was described by Bishop (Auk, vol. 17, April, 1900, p. 115), with type 

 locality at Glacier, White Pass, Alaska. It was refused recognition by the A. O. U. 

 Committee (Auk, vol. 18, July, 1901, p. 312), and has since been generally ignored. 

 The only published use of the name, I believe, has been once by Grinnell (Condor, vol. 

 11, 1909, p. 206), by myself (Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., vol. 24, 1924, p. 345), and by 

 Brooks and Swarth (Pacific Coast Avifauna, no. 17, 1925, p. 73). As may be inferred, 

 I regard yukonensis as a recognizable subspecies. There are now available to me six 

 adults and five in juvenal plumage from localities in northern British Columbia, 

 southern Yukon, and southeastern Alaska, and all these birds, both old and young, 

 exhibit the peculiarities of color and markings pointed out by Bishop (loc. cit.) as dis- 

 tinguishing the northern race. The differences in measurements of bill and tail claimed 

 by Bishop are not apparent in these specimens. 



A bird of this sort can remain in its northern breeding range only during the 

 summer months, and, once the color differences between the races were recognized, a 

 search was instituted through the Museum series for winter-taken specimens at 

 southern points. The rather surprising result was that in a series of about 130 skins 

 (mostly from California, a few from Nevada and Arizona), at least half of which were 

 non-breeding birds, only two examples of yukonensis were discovered. Particulars of 

 these specimens are as follows: Mus. Vert. Zool. no. 29717, adult male; Morro, San 

 Luis Obispo County, California; September 21, 1918; collected by J. Grinnell. Mus. 

 Vert. Zool. no. 45945, female; one mile west of Stanford University, Santa Clara 

 County, California; December 2, 1923; collected by Richard Hunt. 



Bishop (loc. cit., p. 116) mentions a winter specimen from Hayward, California, 

 as "intermediate", and I find two or three in our series to which the same term might 

 be applied; but the two above described specimens are the only ones that are unequivo- 

 cally of the subspecies yukonensis. 



The apparent scarcity of this bird in California implies a southeastward migration 

 from its northern breeding ground. In this it would be following the route traversed 

 by most of the summer visitants of the northwestern interior. There are many species 

 of birds in northern British Columbia and Yukon which in their southward flight cross 

 to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains before even the southern half of British 

 Columbia is reached. — H. S. Swarth, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, Cali- 

 fornia, September 30, 1925. 



