The California Pine Grosbeak 



Nesting, as described by Ray. — Nest: A frail platform of coniferous twigs, 

 lined with fine, light-colored grasses, and settled carelessly upon horizontal branch of 

 conifer, well out from trunk; height in tree 16 (type) to 35 feet. Nesting altitude 

 7000-8500 feet. Eggs: 3; greenish blue (rich nile blue), spotted and marked with 

 vandyke brown or blackish, and with subdued olive-gray or dull lavender shell mark- 

 ings. Av. size 25.9 x 17.3 (1.02 x .68). Season: June; one brood. 



Range of Pinicola enucleator. — Northern parts of Eurasia and North America. 



Range of P. e. californica. — Local resident of the central Sierras from Plumas 

 County south to northern Fresno County, and from elevation 6500 to timberline. 



Authorities. — Cooper (Pinicola canadensis), Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., vol. iv., 

 186S, p. 8; Fisher, A. K., U. S. Dept. Agric, N. Amer. Fauna, no. 7, 1893, p. 79; Price, 

 Auk, vol. xiv., 1897, pp. 182-186 (desc. of californica); Ray, Condor, vol. xiv., 1912, 

 PP- I 57~ I 87> x 7 figs- (desc. of nesting near Pyramid Peak); Hunt, Condor, vol. xxiii., 

 Nov. 1921, pp. 187-190 (nesting near Blairsden, Plumas County). 



THE AUTHOR may as well admit, first off, that he never saw a Pine 

 Grosbeak. He makes that humiliating confession, well knowing that his 

 own reputation as an ornithologist will suffer accordingly, but believing 

 that such an admission will also more accurately establish the status of 

 the California Pine Grosbeak as a reasonably rare bird. But if he should 

 add, in all fairness, that there are only five other mainland species of 

 regular occurrence in California which he has not seen in life, it may 

 serve to emphasize again the remarkably local character of the range of 

 Pinicola enucleator californica. If one would see the California Pine 

 Grosbeak, whether in winter or summer, he must repair to the central 

 Sierras, and preferably to one of the six counties focussed about Lake 

 Tahoe; although there is an old record of one seen by Mr. Nelson "on the 

 head of the San Joaquin River, 1 " and Mr. Howell 2 secured a specimen 

 near Mammoth Pass, in Mono County, on July 31st, 1914. A member of 

 my party also encountered a pair near Twin Lakes in the throat of this 

 pass in June, 1919, and again in 1921 Mr. Carriger saw a pair near the 

 old stamp mill at Mammoth; but although I kept a sharp lookout for 

 three seasons in this same section, no other birds were seen. The Cali- 

 fornia Pine Grosbeak is unquestionably rata avis. 



Our best account 3 of the occurrence of this species comes from the 

 pen of that veteran oologist of the Sierras, Mr. Milton S. Ray, and I 

 condense the substance of his observations, supplemented by those of 

 W. W. Price, 4 the original describer of the subspecies: The California 

 Pine Grosbeak is of very irregular occurrence, even in the limited area 

 where it has been known to breed. The experience of one season is only 



1 North American Fauna, no. 7, May, 1S93, p. 79. 

 - The Condor, Sept.. 1915, p. 206. 

 3 Condor, Vol. XIV., Sept.. 1912, pp. 157-187. 

 ' Auk. Vol. XIV., April. 1897, pp. 182-186. 



153 



