80 THE CONDOR Vol. XXIII 
perhaps much older. At this age juvenal characters should have, at least par- 
tially, disappeared. I am reluctant to adopt the color phase theory unless it can 
be proven; but it must be borne in mind that at least two other species of this 
family are known to have very distinct color phases. 
On the strength of all the above evidence, it seems fair to assume, for the 
present and until further evidence is produced, that all of the specimens of 
Catharacta taken north of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean are referable to 
C. chilensis (Bonaparte). These specimens, so far as known to the writer are: 
One in the American Museum of Natural History, New York (no. 46093), taken 
off Monterey many years ago, before 1853, by or for Nicholas Pike; one in the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge (Bangs coll. 13927), taken in 
Sagami Sea, Japan, August 23, 1903; one in the California Academy of Sciences, 
San Francisco (no. 10920) and two in the Museum of Veriebrate Zoology, Berixe- 
ley (nos. 17758, 17759), all three taken bv Rollo H. Beck, in Monterey Bay, on 
August 7, 1907, August 4 and September 21, 1910, respectively ; and three taiten 
by Stanton Warburton, Jr., off the coasts of Washington and Vancouver Island, 
on June 28 and 30, 1917. Mr. Joseph Mailliard has very kindly sent me a full 
and accurate description of the Academy bird, and I understand that Mr. War- 
burton’s birds were identified by Mr. Harry S. Swarth as of the same species 
as those in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Apparently they are all of the 
same species. This materially extends the range of the Chilean Skua, Catharacta 
chilensis (Bonaparte), and adds this speciss to the North American list. 
Taunton, Massachusetts, March 18, 1921. 
NESTING OF THE STEPHENS FOX SPARROW 
By WRIGHT M. PIERCE 
WITH THREE PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR 
HERE seem to be no published records of the nesting of the Stephens Fox 
Aa Sparrow (Passerella tliaca stephensi), nor a description of the eggs. While 
sets of eggs of this bird may have been collected by others, I, myself, had 
not enjoyed that experience, and I was anxious to find a nest. 
The past few seasons I, with different companions, have been making regu 
lar collecting trips to Big Bear Lake, San Bernardino Mountains, southern Cali- 
fornia, one of the principal homes of the Stephens Fox Sparrow; but search for 
sets had always been without results prior to 1919. We had spent much time 
scouring through the patches of mountain misery (Ceanothus) which grows 
quite thick, from two to four feet high, and is covered with numerous thorns; 
and also through the chinquapin, a scraggy, wiry bush which grows to about the 
same height and is very difficult to penetrate. While the birds themselves were 
quite abundant in favored localities, such as the brush-covered canyons and lit- 
tle flats on the hills about the lake, the nearest we came to finding a nest was an 
encounter with young just out and not yet able to fly. Naturally we arrived at 
the conclusion, wrongly as we later discovered, that the birds must nest only on 
