84 THE CONDOR Vol. XX 



nomenclature of Perisoreus obscurus. In the case of the Oregon Jay it will be 

 noted that the matter is complicated through the fact that the type locality of 

 P. o. obscurus is at Shoalwater Bay, Washington, about midway of the longitu- 

 dinal range of the subspecies. Specimens from this region consequently do not 

 exhibit the extremes of size or color characters shown by those to the northward 

 or to the southward. Consequently, if it is considered desirable to split the race 

 it is doubly hard to determine where to draw the line. 



The small size of the Humboldt Bay birds is apparently just as good grounds 

 for the naming of a local race from that point as is the dark color of P. o. rath- 

 buni. If this were done, however, what is there left of P. o. obscurus but an ill- 

 defined intergradient between the two. extremes ? This, of course, is really what 

 typical examples of obscurus are, but the first name having been applied to a 

 bird from this intermediate region it certainly seems best to let it cover the whole 

 variable coast race. 



Another point is involved in the relegation by Dr. Oberholser of the Van- 

 couver Island jays to the subspecies Perisoreus o. griseus, upon the basis of speci- 

 mens collected by the present writer and previously reported upon by him (Univ. 

 Calif. Publ. Zool., vol. 10, 1912, p. 48). In the paper cited these birds were 

 called P. o. obscurus, with comment upon certain peculiarities exhibited by the 

 series, in which course due regard was paid to the several questions involved. 

 These birds, according to Dr. Oberholser, are in color similar to griseus, but are 

 somewhat smaller than that race, being of about the same size as his P. o. rath- 

 buni. He is thus inclined here to place greater weight upon characters of color 

 than of size. I do not agree with him, considering that these birds probably ex- 

 emplify a final step in the general increase in size northward of P. o. obscurus. 



As to color, the adults of the Vancouver Island series are either in badly 

 worn plumage or else are molting and not fully feathered. Their apparently 

 paler coloration than some freshly molted and fully feathered birds from the 

 mainland coast region may or may not be due to their imperfect condition. Ju- 

 veniles from Vancouver Island are slightly darker colored than examples of 

 griseus in comparable plumage from the Warner Mountains, California. 



At any rate, even should fully feathered Vancouver Island birds prove to be 

 uniformly pale colored, I still do not believe they should be considered the same 

 as Perisoreus obscurus griseus from the arid interior. Such a course would be 

 as much a mistake, and a comparable one, as the error now given sanction by the 

 A. 0. U. Check-List (1910, p. 266), where the range of "Junco hyemalis connec- 

 tens" {=Junco oreganus sliufeldti), as described, includes Vancouver Island. 

 The jays do not range over the whole island, but, during the nesting season at 

 least, are restricted to the higher mountains. Any peculiarity in their appear- 

 ance should be recognized as the probable result of isolation or environment ; it 

 seems to me utterly futile to attempt to link together races so remote on the basis 

 of slight and questionable resemblances in some particulars. In this connection 

 attention should again be directed to the exactly comparable case of the North- 

 west Bewick Wren, cited earlier in this paper. 



To sum up, it is the writer's opinion, in view of the foregoing arguments, 

 that the name Perisoreus o. obscurus should be applied to the coastal race extend- 

 ing from Humboldt Bay to Vancouver Island, and P. o. griseus to the form of the 

 arid interior — exactly the treatment accorded the two subspecies by Ridgway 

 (Birds N. and Mid. Am., in, 1904, pp. 372-374). 



Berkeley, California, December 31, 1917. 



