July, 1920 THE CALIFORNIAN RACE OF THE BREWER BLACKBIRD 153 
Brewer Blackbird appears to be safely applicable to the California form. With- 
out more ado, therefore, let it be called 
Euphagus cyanocephalus minusculus, new subspecies 
California Brewer Blackbird 
Type.—Male adult; no. 34136, Mus. Vert. Zool.; Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, 
California; January 26, 1901; collected by J. Grinnell; orig. no. 4577. 
Diagnosis —Similar to Huphagus cyanocephalus cyanocephalus but averaging 
snialler throughout; metallic sheen of back, rump, and posterior lower surface in male 
steely blue rather than brassy in tone. 
Measurements.—Ten males of EH. c. minusculus from west-central California 
(Berkeley, Palo Alto, Monterey, etc.) give average and extreme measurements, in milli- 
meters, as follows: Wing, 124.9 (121.2-130.9); tail [from base of uropygium], 105.9 (101.1- 
111.5); tarsus, 32.2 (30-8-33.5); exposed culmen, 18.8 (17.8-20.0); depth of bill at nos- 
tril, 7.3 (6.7-7.8). Eight females from same region: Wing, 115.0 (111.8-118.5); tail, 97.8 
(92.2-102.0); tarsus, 30.1 (26.8-31.8) ; exposed culmen, 17.1 (16.1-18.6); depth of bill at 
nostril, 6.7 (6.1-7.1). Weights, in grams, of four males: 69.2 (67.1-74.0); of five females, 
58.7 (52.2-66.7). 
Ten males of Z. c. cyanocephalus from southeastern California (Death Valley and 
points in the valley of the Colorado River), where migrant or wintering, give average 
and extreme measurements as follows: Wing, 130.9 (129.1-134.3) ; tail [from base of uro- 
pygium], 110.8 (102.5-116.5); tarsus, 33.2 (31.2-34.7); exposed culmen, 19.4 (18.6-20.4) ; 
depth of bill at nostril, 7.7 (7.3-8.3). Eight females from same localities: Wing, 118.7 
(115.6-121.8); tail, 99.1 (95.6-101.8); tarsus, 31.6 (30.2-33.0); exposed culmen, 17.7 (16.8- 
18.7); depth of bill at nostril, 7.2 (6.7-7.7). Weights, in grams, of six males: 77.4 (71.0- 
85.7); of three females, 61.2 (54.4-65.2.). 
A series of EZ. c. cyanocephalus was loaned the writer, through the kind agency of 
Mr. Wm. C. Bradbury, of Denver, from the Colorado Museum of Natural History. Hight 
properly selected males out of this series, from localities in Colorado and Texas, show 
average measurements as follows: Wing, 131.0; tail, 114.5; tarsus, 33.1; exposed culmen, 
19.6; depth of bill at nostril, 8.1. 
Distribution.—E. c. minusculus occupies the Pacific slope of California (probably 
also of northern Lower California and of Oregon). It is permanently resident, save at 
high altitudes in the mountains where heavy snows bury its food supply in winter. It 
is this form which breeds in the mountains and coast district of southern California 
south to the Mexican line, as also throughout the valleys and foothills of California west 
of the Sierran crest, north at least to Shasta Valley, Siskiyou County. 
 E. c. cyanocephalus occurs as a transient and winter visitant in suitable parts of 
the Colorado and Mohave deserts; also this subspecies, though not so typically, breeds 
on the east side of the Sierras, around Mono Lake and at the head of Owens Valley, and 
in the Modoc region. The birds which winter on the Colorado and Mohave deserts prob- 
ably breed in northern Nevada and to the northward and eastward. 
Remarks.—Variation is:marked, in all respects, in the Brewer Blackbird. 
The means of the divergent geographic races are admittedly close at best, and the 
individual variation brings wide overlapping, as will be seen upon consulting the 
measurements here given. Though the difference in stoutness of bill would seem 
to be the easiest thing for a person to use in discriminating series of specimens, 
care must. be exercised to take into account the other size features as well. The 
remark made by Baird in 1858 (vol. 1x, Pac. R. R. Reports, p. 552) concerning 
this species still holds, even though some of the variation is now found to be 
subspecific: ‘‘The culmen is sometimes much curved from the very base, some- 
times quite straight; the size of the bill varies considerably’’. With birds from 
the coast district of California, the relative slenderness of the bill is a salient 
feature. But when birds from the Sierras and from northeastern California are 
examined trouble is found in allocating individuals. Series must then be avail- 
able, to permit naming the form represented on the basis of average of charac- 
