July, 1912 PRESEXT STATUS OF THE COLORADO CHECK-LIST OF BIRDS 149 
birds in Colorado, pJwcniccits to include all the breeding birds of the State, and 
fortis to include migrants from the north that winter in Colorado. During the 
last few years large series of blackbirds have been collected in Colorado with a 
view of settling definitely the status of the several forms in the State. It may be 
considered as certain that the breeding bird of southwestern Colorado is iiciitralis ; 
that the breeding bird of eastern Colorado is different from the breeding bird of 
the eastern Mississippi X'alley and according to the present rulings of the A. O. C. 
Committee shonld bear the name of fortis; that most of the wintering birds of 
eastern Colorado are the same form as the birds breeding there, but that if the 
form arcfolegus is recognized ( as the present writer believes will eventually hap- 
pen) it will have to be admitted to the Colorado list as a rare winter straggler. 
Loxia curvirostra minor. Sclater considers the great bulk of the Colorado 
red crossbills as belonging to this form, but assigns the breeding birds of south- 
western Colorado to stricklardi and records a i)air taken May 22, 1874, in El Paso 
County as the same form. The male specimen mentioned by Sclater has been 
sent to the Biological Survey for examination and while the dimensions are well 
within the limits of stricklaiidi, they are also not outside the limits of the large 
Rocky IMountain form that has been separated as bciidirci, but which is considered 
by the A. O. U. as included under minor. It seems best, then, to consider the pair 
mentioned by Sclater as large specimens of minor, which is the common resident 
bird of that part of Colorado. 
The reference of the breeding birds of sonthwestern Colorado to stricklaiidi 
seems hardly warranted. No specimens are available to settle the matter one way 
or the other, but the fact that the breeding birds of the mountains of northern 
New Mexico are not stricklaiidi is a strong argument against the probable occur- 
rence of this form as a breeder in Colorado. 
Astragalinus psaltra arizonae. 
Astragalinus psaltra mexicana. 
Both these forms are still retained by Sclater though it has been conclusively 
proved that they are both color phases due to age. All Colorado Arkansas gold- 
finches are referable to one form gsaltria. 
Protonotaria citrea. Is admitted to the Colorado list by Sclater on tbe 
same evidence that was considered by Cooke as entirely unsatisfactory. 
Dendroica virens. Added to the Colorado list by L. J. Mersey (Auk 
xxviii, 1911, 490) who took a specimen at Barr near Denver, May 20, 1909. 
Phalaropus fulicarius. Not included by Sclater though the record has 
been published (Auk, xxvi, 1909, 409) and the specimen is still in the collection 
of the Biological Survey. 
Aegialitis meloda. Not inckuled by Sclater though a specimen was taken 
by Dawson May 17, 1899, at Julesburg and the record published (Wilson I’nlle- 
tin, VI, 1899, 50; Auk xxvi, 1909). 
Meleagris gallopavo silvestris. Omitted by Sclater from the Colorado list, 
where it has held a place since included by Say in 1823. It is true that there is 
not now in any collection a specimen of the eastern turkey taken in Colorado, nor 
has a specimen ever been identified as such by a competent ornithologist. The 
only claim the form has, rests on the assumption that the birds of southeastern 
Colorado (where the species was very common a hundred years ago) must have 
been the same as the birds a little to the eastward in Kansas and Oklahoma. As 
the species is now supposed to be extinct in that ]iart of Colorado it is probable 
that the matter never can be settled. 
