The California Evening Grosbeak 



even closely related, for there are at least four mutually distinct and only 

 distantly related groups of "grosbeaks" within the confines of the family 

 in America alone. These are the Coccothranstea, the Hawfinches, includ- 

 ing the "Evening" Grosbeak; the Pyrrhidce, including the Pine Grosbeaks; 

 the Guiracce, including the Blue and the Black-headed "Grosbeak"; and 

 the CardinalecE, including the Arizona Cardinal "Grosbeak," which all 



Taken in Mono County 



Photo by the Author 



/4-22 



NEST AND EGGS OF WESTERN EVENING GROSBEAK, Ri 

 M. C O., IN SITU 



but attains our own borders. In view of these necessary distinctions, 

 it is unfortunate that a confusion should have crept into the pages of so 

 sedate an authority as the British Museum Catalogue of Birds' Eggs. 

 The eggs described and figured (Vol. V., page 153, and Plate IX., fig. 1) 

 as those of Hesperiphona montana, the "Montana Grosbeak," taken in 

 Alameda County, California, are unquestionably those of the familiar 

 Pacific Black-headed Grosbeak, Hedymeles melanocephaliis capitalis 

 Baird. 



The nest portrayed in the accompanying illustration was found by 

 Robert Canterbury of the M. C. 0. staff, July 9, 1922. He had been 

 directed to a likely locality, and upon hearing the "yelp" of the male bird 



H5 



