287 
In many parts of California the present species appears to be only a winter visitant. Mr. W. E. 
Bryant says that in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties it is rare in some winters and in others 
abundant. Mr. F. Stephens records it as an irregular winter visitor to the San Bernardino Valley, 
and a rare summer resident in the mountains (cf. Belding's notes, /.5.c.). In Ventura County 
Mr. Evermann gives it as an abundant winter resident (Auk, iii. p. 186). | 
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, during the expedition to the San Francisco Mountain Region, says that it 
was “occasionally seen in the pines and along the lower part of the fir belt. А few were seen at 
Grand Falls on the Little Colorado the middle of August, and it was tolerably common at the Grand 
Cañon of the Colorado the middle of September” (N. Amer. Faun. no. 3, p. 101). 
Mr. Ridgway, in his * Report on the Exploration of the 40th Parallel, records specimens from 
the West Humboldt Mountains in Nevada and the Truckee Valley, where a nest was found in a 
cotton-wood tree. Another nest was procured in the Toyabe Mountains on July 3, at an elevation 
of 7500 feet, and also on the East Humboldt Mountains on the 22nd of July, at a height of 
8000 feet. Several nests were found at Parley's Park, Utah, in June and J uly, and in Pack's Cañon 
in Utah on the 3rd of the last-named month. Mr. Ridgway gives the following note :—“ The 
Common Robin was not found at Sacramento Valley until we neared the foot-hills of the Sierra 
Nevada, where the first individuals of the species were noticed among the scattered pines which 
formed the outposts of the continuous forest of the mountains. From the Sierra Nevada eastward, 
however, it was continually met with in all wooded localities, the aspen groves of the higher cañons 
being its favorite resort during the summer, while in winter it descended to the lower valleys, and 
passed the season among the willows or cotton-woods and attendant shrubbery along the streams. 
In the vicinity of Carson City it was extremely abundant from the middle of March until the middle 
of April, and assembled in large flocks among the scrubby thickets of dwarf-plum bushes along the 
base of the Sierra. In August they were quite plentiful in the valley of the Truckee, below the 
‘Big Bend,’ being attracted thither by the abundance of fruit of the buffalo-berry bushes (Shepherdia 
argentea), which at this time formed an important portion of their food ; and later in the season they 
were observed feeding on service-berries (the fruit of Amelanchier canadensis) along the foot-hills of 
the eastern ranges. 
* In their manners and notes we could not detect the minutest difference between the western 
and eastern Robins, although climatic or other geographical influences have perceptibly modified 
their plumage. In all respects it seems the same bird, the song and other notes being identical" 
(Expl. 40th Parallel, p. 391). 
Dr. A. K. Fisher, in his account of the birds obtained during the Death Valley Expedition 
(N. Amer. Fauna, no. 7, p. 146), writes as follows :—“ The Robin is a rather rare bird in the desert 
regions, even during migration and in winter. In Nevada several were seen at Ash Meadows in 
March. Mr. Palmer found it rather common from the valley up to the piñons on the west side of 
the Charleston Mountains in February, and Mr. Nelson saw it about the ranches in Pahrump and 
Vegas valleys, and in Vegas Wash, in March. Dr. Merriam saw it on Mount Magruder, June 8, and 
in Utah, at Mountain Meadows, May 17. In California a few were seen at Furnace Creek, Death 
Valley, the latter part of January, and again on April 10. Several were observed at Resting Springs, 
in the Amargosa Desert, the first half of February. А few Robins were seen about a spring in 
Johnson Сайоп, іп the Panamint Range, in April. Dr. Merriam saw several in the junipers in the 
same mountains April 16-19, and Mr. Nelson a few at the head of Willow Creek early in May, after 
which time none were seen. Several were seen in the Argus Range, above Maturango Spring, the 
first half of May. Mr. Nelson found it in the Inyo Mountains among Pinus flexilis and Р. aristata, 
and in the White Mountains from the piñons up to 10,000 feet. Іп the Sierra Nevada Robins were 
plentiful in many places. Mr. Nelson found them common at the head of Owens River, on the east 
