Mar., 1913 
A NEW RACE OF ROSY PINCH PROM THE SIERRA NEVADA 
/ / 
As giving foundation for suspecting the true state of affairs, even before 
this material was available for examination, the writer had assured himself that, 
as far as known, in not one single Boreal mammal or resident bird (other than 
the Rosy Finch) was the subspecies (or species) identical on the Sierra Nevada 
and on the northern Rocky Mountains. If the Rosy Finch should prove abso- 
lutely the same in the two areas, it would constitute the only known exception, 
and would for this very reason merit particular comment. The writer was 
prompted to see if the Rosy Finch bad really defied the forces causing geographic 
variation in the other animals. Franklv, he would have been astonished to find 
the behavior of the Rosy Finch out of harmony with that of mammals and other 
birds of similar ecologic relationships. 
But — critical study leads straight to the thesis that as with the other animals 
isolation of habitat by long distance (and under differing conditions) has 
resulted in subspecific divergence. 
Leucosticte tephrocotis dawsoni, new subs])ecies 
Sierra Nevada Rosy Finch 
TYPE. — Male juvenal; no. 20217, Univ. Calif. Mus. Vert. Zool.; Whitne\ 
Meadows, 9800 feet altitude, Sierra Nevada, Tulare County, California ; August 
7, 1911; collected by J. Grinnell. 
DIAGNOSTIC CHAR.vcTERS. — As compared with its nearest relative, Lcucostictc 
tephrocotis tephrocotis Swainson, of the northern Rocky Mountain region, in 
British America and we, stern Alaska : general coloration in all plumages grayer 
toned, less intensely brown, size slightly less, the bill being distinctlv less in bulk, 
and wing averaging more rounded; juvenal plumage much grayer especially 
anteriorly both above and below ; breeding females less different ; breeding males 
least different, but still perceptibly less vivid in the che.stnut about the head. 
MATERIAL — Of true tephrocotis there is available a series of twenty-three 
fresh skins loaned for the use of the writer by the authorities of the United 
States National Museum. These are beautifully-prepared sjiecimens collected in 
the summer of 1911 by Messrs. Joseph H. Riley and Ned Hollister. The locali- 
ties of capture are Moose Pass, and Moose Branch of the Smoky River, both in 
the Canadian Rockies and near to one another, the former in British Columbia 
the latter in Alberta. Since these localities are not on any ma]) at hand, the 
writer was furnished information as to their whereabouts from ]\Ir. Riley, to 
whom he is also indebted for the courtesy of offering him the material for sys- 
tematic use. 
Of dazi’soiii the material at hand consists of fifty-six specimens contained in 
the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, chiefly of 1911 and 1912 collecting', in the 
Sierra Nevada of Tulare, Inyo and Eldorado counties, California. In detail the 
material at hand is made up of plumage-stages as follows : 
Leucosticte t. tephrocotis 
7 adult males (July, August), in more or less worn breeding and post- 
breeding plumage. 
8 adult females (July, August), same condition. 
8 juvenals (July, August), wing and tail feathers not fully unsheathed. 
Leucosticte t. dazvsoni 
18 adult jnales (May to August), in more or less worn breeding and post 
breeding plumage. 
12 adult females (May to August), same condition. 
II adult males (September), molting to full winter plumage. 
4 adult females (September), molting to full winter plumage. 
