28 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVIII 
apparently seldom above limits of Upper Sonoran”. This statement, it seems to me, is 
unnecessarily guarded, in view of the fact that the Traill Flycatcher breeds in the 
Yosemite Valley in close association with the Lincoln Sparrow ( Melospiza lincolni 
lincolni) and the White-crowned Sparrow ( Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys). On 
June 10, 1914, I found a nest of the last-named, within a stone’s throw of a Traill Fly- 
catcher’s nest on the banks of the Merced (altitude 4000). 
On July 18, 1913, I photographed (but did not take on account of advanced incuba- 
tion) a set of Traill Flycatcher eggs at Simpson Meadows on the Middle Fork of Kings 
River at an altitude of 6000 feet, and in the heart of the Sierras. The Simpson Meadows 
are confessedly a faunal hodgepodge, but a place where Thick-billed Sparrows ( Pass - 
erella iliaca megarhyncha), Townsend Solitaire ( Myadestes townsendi), Sierra Grouse 
( Dendragapus obscurus sierrae), Red-breasted Nuthatch ( Sitta canadensis) , Sierra Junco 
(Junco oreganus thurberi), and Sierra Hermit Thrush ( Hylocichla guttata sequoiensis) 
breed, is at least high Transition. 
Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis. Blue-fronted Jay. “On the mountains of southern 
California from those of Ventura County southeast”, etc. “Partial winter movement . . . 
thus frontalis has been recorded in winter from Santa Barbara”. I am persuaded that 
some form of Cyanocitta breeds west, at least to the center, in Santa Barbara County, 
and that Santa Barbara birds are merely visitors from over the range (Santa Ynez). 
These are, however, my only records: Foxen Canyon, April 2, 1912; April 2, 1914; Sol- 
vang, April 27, 1912; Santa Barbara, March 29 and April 28, 1913. 
Corvus corax sinuatus. Western Raven. “Common resident locally throughout the 
State”. It seems to me that this statement is both too general and too generous as a 
summary of the present status of the Raven, even when qualified further: “now scarce 
or absent in the most thickly settled counties”. The fact is that one may travel coun- 
ties on end in California, and those by no means the most settled ones, without once 
seeing a Raven. We travelled a thousand miles in the northeastern quarter of the state 
in 1912 without seeing a single bird. And if they were once common in the Sierras (see 
Fisher, “Birds of the Death Valley Expedition”, 1893, pp. 70, 71), they are no longer so. 
I saw no Ravens in a month’s sojourn in the Cottonwood Lakes region in 1911, nor in 
another month in the region focussing on the North Palisade Peak, in 1913. The two 
“associational” keys to the current distribution of the Raven in California are cattle and 
sea-birds' eggs, and the Raven holds no dwelling where neither of these factors is 
present. 
Corvus brachyrhynchos hesperis. Western Crow. “Not recorded east of the Sier- 
ran divide except . . . Fort Crook . . . and Eagle Lake”. Quite to our surprise we 
found Crows at Davis Creek in Modoc County from June 10th on. They had evidently 
bred in the vicinity. The species occurred also at Eagleville (June 30, 1912). 
Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus. Pinyon Jay. Santa Barbara must be credited with 
another, or perhaps two, of these sporadic occurrences. On October 9, 1914, a flock of 
about 200 flew westward directly over Los Colibris. About a week previously I had seen 
a large flock which I took to be of this species as they were outlined against the Santa 
Ynez Range at a distance of two miles. 
Dolichonyx oryzivorus. Bobolink. “Rare, transient; four records”. On June 30, 
1912, we found Bobolinks still in song and evidently breeding in the meadows near Eagle- 
ville, Modoc County. We did not, however, attempt to determine the size of the colony, 
but I remember passing down a lane with two males on one side and one on the other, 
singing. 
Molothrus ater obscurus. Dwarf Cowbird. Westernmost citation of occurrence, 
“Los Angeles and Ventura counties”. Is also a rare breeder in the vicinity of Santa 
Barbara. On the 13th of September, 1912, I took a young female in patchy transition 
plumage from a flock of Redwings at Carpinteria. On August 25, 1915, Professor Jones 
and I found a bird in pure juvenal plumage dancing close attendance on a group of 
horses pastured ten miles west of Santa Barbara. Near the same spot I saw a fully 
matured bird riding about on the back of a hog, October 28, 1911. 
Agelaius tricolor. Tricolored Redwing. “Not recorded east of the Sierran divide, 
save as breeding at Lake Tahoe”. We found them in great numbers along the south 
fork of the Pit River, in Modoc County, June 5, 1912. 
Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys. White-crowned Sparrow. “Common summer 
visitant to the Boreal zone”. Its nesting in Yosemite Valley with Traill Flycatcher has 
