86 Vol. XX 



SEVEN NEW OR NOTEWORTHY BIRDS FROM EAST-CENTRAL 



CALIFORNIA 



By JOSEPH GRINNELL 



(Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California) 



THE FIELD WORK carried on by the California Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology during 1917, in that portion of California comprising Mono and 

 Inyo counties, brought to light some new facts in regard to the general dis- 

 tribution and geographic variation of western birds. The more prominent of 

 these discoveries are set forth in the present paper, whereby seven new names 

 are added to the list of the birds known to belong to California. 

 Glaucidium gnoma pinicola Nelson 

 Rocky Mountain Pigmy Owl 

 An adult female of this owl (no. 27887, Mus. Vert. Zool.) was taken by the 

 writer September 30, 1917, at 6200 feet altitude some three miles east of Jackass 

 Spring, in the northern section of the Panamint Mountains, Inyo County. The 

 place of capture was in the pinyon belt, and here the species must have been com- 

 mon, for the characteristic notes were heard almost nightly during the period 

 from September 30 to October 7. 



The specimen shows nearly complete fresh plumage. As compared with ex- 

 amples of Glaucidium gnoma calif ornicum, in the same condition, from the Sierra 

 Nevada, it is of slightly greater size, slatier (hair brown) tone of coloration on 

 the dorsal surface, and has the streaking beneath blacker. Chord of wing, 101.1 

 mm. ; tail (measured by the Ridgway method), 72.1 ; culmen from cere, 12.0. The 

 features given accord almost exactly with the characterization of pinicola fur- 

 nished by Ridgway (Birds N. and Mid. Amer., pt. vi, 1914, p. 789). Further- 

 more, Mr. E. W. Nelson, the original describer of pinicola, who was recently 

 shown the skin offhand without his previous knowledge of its locality, instantly 

 pronounced it to belong to pinicola. 



Dryobates villosus leucothorectis Oberholser 

 White-breasted Woodpecker 

 This proved to be the representative race of the Hairy Woodpecker in the 

 White and Panamint mountains, in Mono and Inyo counties. As compared with 

 Dryobates villosus hyloscopus, of the southern Sierras and southern California 

 generally, the Inyo birds are notably whiter beneath and smaller billed. As com- 

 pared with D. v. orius of northeastern California the Inyo birds are decidedly 

 smaller throughout. The following table serves to show the localities and meas- 

 urements of the specimens of D. v. leucothorectis taken. 



No. Sex Locality Collector Date AVing Tail C uf m en 



27892 $ Hanaupah Canyon, 8000 ft, J. Dixon June 2, 1917 124.6 83.2 26.1 



Panamint Mts. 



27893 $ Hanaupah Canyon, 8000 ft., J. Dixon June 2, 1917 123.8 70.5 1 28.2 



Panamint Mts. 



27894 $ 3 mi. east Jackass Spr., 6200 J. Grinnell Sept. 30, 1917 128.3 82.6 28.0 



ft., Panamint Mts. 



27895 $ Silver Canyon, 7000 ft., H. G. White July 19, 1917 127.2 62.0* 28.4 



White Mts. 



27896 9 McAfee Cr., 9000 ft, A. C. Shelton Aug. 9, 1917 116.5 76.5 25.0 

 jv. White Mts. 



'Worn off at end. 



