The Pasadena" Thrasher Not a Recognizable Race"
The “Pasadena” Thrasher Not a Recognizable Race
I now believe Dr. Harry C. Oberholser was absolutely right in his contention that Toxostoma redivivum pasadenense is synonymous with T. r. redivivum (see Auk, XXXV, 1918, P. 52 et SW.). The type locality of redivivum was Monterey or near vicinity. When I named pasadenense (Auk, xv, 1398, p. 236) I assumed that birds from Monterey would be identical with the northern race, whereas, as first established by Dr. Oberholser on the basis of material in the United States National Museum, they prove to be like those from southern California. The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology has recently acquired a considerable number of thrashers representing a series of localities in Monterey County from Seaside southward; and all of these fall with the southern race, thus corroborating Oberholser’s findings. Specimens from Santa Cruz, just north of Monterey Bay, are, according to Oberhoiser, referable to the northern form, T. r. sonomne, as are representatives from many localities in the counties bordering on San Francisco Bay. Here is a case where the type locality of a species happens to lie very nearly on the boundary line between the ranges of two constituent subspecies, and the correct allocation of the name first proposed depends upon the exact determination of topotypical specimens. Shifting of the supposed location of the belt of intergradation a few miles to the northward has necessitated transposition of names, and pasadenense is no longer to be recognized-save as a synonym of redivivum.
J. Grinnell
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California, June 25, 1921
