Mar., 1918 NEW BIRDS FROM EAST-CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 87 



It may be noted here that Oberholser in his revision of the Hairy Woodpeck- 

 ers (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 40, 1911, p. 611) considered birds from the Piute 

 Mountains, Kern County, as inclining somewhat towards leucothorectis. He list- 

 ed them under hyloscopus, however, as also specimens from the White Moun- 

 tains, the latter without comment. 



Selasphorus platycercus (Swainson) 

 Broad-tailed Hummingbird 



It is at last possible to announce an absolutely conclusive instance of the oc- 

 currence of this bird in California. On August 13, 1917, Mr. H. G. White, field 

 assistant for this Museum, was so fortunate as to secure an adult female Broad- 

 tailed Hummingbird (no. 27941, Mus. Vert. Zool.), together with its nest (no. 

 1724) and two half-grown young (nos. 28877, 28878, in alcohol), in the White 

 Mountains, Inyo County. This was at about 9000 feet altitude, two miles north- 

 west of the Roberts Ranch, on the east flank of the White Mountains in the up- 

 per part of Wyman Creek canyon. The nest was situated three feet above the 

 ground in a symphoricarpos bush growing on the canyon wall at the edge of a 

 black rock slide and about twenty yards from the bed of the canyon. This was in 

 the cercocarpus belt near the upper edge of the pinyon belt ; life-zone, low Cana- 

 dian or Transition. 



The present record quite satisfactorily substantiates that by Swarth (Con- 

 dor, xviii, 1916, p. 130) of a bird seen by him (but not taken), in Mazourka Can- 

 yon, Inyo Mountains, May 24, 1912. The present announcement, however, does 

 not mean the re-establishment of any of the three old records of the species for 

 California, these having been disposed of as faulty in various ways (see Grinnell, 

 Pac. Coast Avif. no. 11, 1915, pp. 184-185). The indications are that this Rocky 

 Mountain species of hummingbird occurs regularly as a summer visitant to the 

 high mountains along the eastern border of California, east of Owens Valley. 



Calcarius ornatus (Townsend) 

 Chestnut-collared Longspur 

 An immature female of this species, new to California, was taken by the 

 writer at the "Cow Camp" on Lee Flat, 5200 feet altitude, fifteen miles due 

 north of Darwin, Inyo County, September 28, 1917. This bird (no. 28260, Mus. 

 Vert. Zool.) is in complete first-winter plumage. It was alone on the ground 

 near the seepage from a cement water-trough, and w T as apprehended among the 

 small birds visiting the oasis by reason of its peculiar call-note. 



Pipilo maculatus montanus Swarth 

 Mountain Towhee 



The series of spotted towhees (nos. 28445-28456, Mus. Vert. Zool.) obtained 

 in the Panamint Mountains, Inyo County, is found to properly come under the 

 name montanus. As compared with P. m. curtatns of the Mono Lake country 

 and northern Nevada, the Panamint birds show decisively greater length of tail 

 and longer hind claws. As compared with P. m. falcinellus from the west slope 

 of the central Sierra Nevada, the Panamint birds show longer tail and much 

 greater extent of white markings. 



Two examples in unworn fall plumage, taken by Joseph Dixon and the writ- 

 er three miles east of Jackass Spring, in the northern portion of the Panamint 

 Mountains, September 30 and October 3, respectively, 1917, show measurements 

 as follows. No. 28455, male immature (that is, in full first-winter plumage) : 



