:\Iar., 1913 
A NEW RACE OF ROSY FINCH FROM THE SIERRA NENADA 
79 
Tabi.e Showing Frequency oe Wing Formuea 
T — Z,. t. tephrocotis, 14 specimens. 
D — Z,. t. dazi'soni, 23 specimens 
D 
D 
T 
D 
T 
D 
D 
T 
D 
D 
T 
D 
D 
T 
TD 
D 
TD 
TD 
D 
D 
TD 
TD 
TD 
D 
TD 
TD 
TD 
D 
9-8-7 
8-9-7 
8-7-9 
7-8-9 
Sharp-pointed 
Wi 
ng 
Rounded 
As far as known, the Sierra Nevada Rosy Finch does not leave its breeding 
grounds during winter farther than the near-lying mountain ranges immediately 
to the eastward. The British American race, however, is believed to furnish the 
individuals which occur in winter in the northwestern United States south to 
eastern Oregon, Utah and Colorado. At least a winter specimen at hand from 
Camp Harney, Harney County, Oregon, is distinctly L. t. tephrocotis as here 
restricted. 
REMARKS — There is no spring molt in the rosy finches, but marked color 
changes are brought about through wear. By this process, the extensively pink 
superficial portions of much of the plumage in its fresh fall condition is lost by 
the time the breeding season is at hand, the underlying brown coloration being 
thereby rendered much more conspicuous. It is thus necessary in diagnosing 
specimens on the basis of color characters, as well as of wing formula, to take 
into account the stage of wear reached. The tone of coloration in fresh juvenal 
plumage would appear to be more determinant than that in worn breeding adults. 
-And lacking perfectly comparable specimens, in fresh fall plumage, of the two 
races here distinguished, a juvenal is selected as the type of the newly named 
form. 
The subspecific name given to the Sierra Nevada Rosy Finch is selected in 
recognition of the services to ornithology of William Leon Dawson. It has been 
the custom of systematists to signalize in like manner the work of fellow-system- 
atists, of collectors, of benefactors to scientific institutions. In the present in- 
stance it seems to the writer quite in accord with this happy custom to recognize 
an eminent service to the literary and artistic sides of bird study. Mr. Dawson 
has contributed in this wise with marked success. 
