Jan., ?9o4[ THE CONDOR t 9 marked with rather large, round, or ovate spots; but this seems to be purely in- dividual variation, for I find specimens showing both character of markings in the Arizona, the desert, and the southern California series. The differences in the black throat patch are mainly seasonal. When the fall moult is completed the throat feathers, dusky at the base, then white, and with about the terminal third black, are slightly edged with grayish, producing, in birds shot up to about the end of October, a somewhat hoary effect in the other?'ise black throat and upper breast. This is very soon lost, and by early spring much of the black has worn away as well, sufficiently so to expose much of the light colored portions of the feathers; so that in birds shot at this time the black is not nearly as "solid" in ap- pearance as is the case with fall birds. In two June specimens, one from San Fernando, California, and the other from the Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, abrasion has proceeded to such a point that the throat patch has entirely disap- peared as a distinctive marking, and the two birds are practically uniformly spotted over the entire lower parts; while in the two Sonora specimens ( 9 ad. and 3 ira. coil. F. Stephens. Aug. i8, r884) the plumage is so abraded as to have lost all distinctive markings, and the lower parts are almost unmarked. In the series of cactus wrens now before me I am quite unable to appreciate any decided pallor of coloration on the part of the desert birds as compared with specimens from the coast region; and it may be of interest to remark that the female of the two extremely ?)ale colored birds mentioned above, and the darkest colored bird of the whole series, also a female, were snot on the same day, October i8, I9ot, at the same place, near San Fernando, California. Juveniles from all regions show great variation in markings and coloration; they are usually more or less spotted underneath, with some ochraceous on the flanks and abdomen, but one in my collection (No. 4o8o 9 juv. Santa Rita Moun- tains, Arizona, June ?, i9o3) has the lower parts, irom the throat to and including the lower tail coverts, strongly suffused with ochraceous, and, with the exception of some spots on the lower tail coverts, practically immaculate. tTcvanti as originally described was considered as intermediate both in colora- ti,?n and habitat, between the Lower California ?ff?nis and the more northern brun- neicapillus, and as such the race may have existence, though in southern Califor- nia its habitat must be extremely restricted. None of the birds in the series I have gathered from this region are referable to that race, as I have demonstrated; and it is also apparent that, by whatever name it be called, but one recognizaole variety of cactus wren occupies the region from the Pacific Coast in southern California, to, at least, eastern Arizona. Of the Texan form, tYeleodyles brunneicapillus couesi, I cannot speak with any authority, having no specimens. ?lnlho%vi is supposed to differ from both b?3,anti and co?tesi in being of paler coloration and having the lower parts less heavily spotted. There is assuredly no difference between desert birds and birds from the Pacific Coast region in these respects, and as the characters supposed to distinguish couesi and bryanti ("back narrowly striped with white, the stripes being broken up into spots; intermediate teetrices nearly all black, or slightly spotted with white") certainly habitually occur in the coast birds, the in- ference is that tile supposed three subspecies couesi, atzthotzyt' and br?,anti are really one indistinguishable variety. Thus if true brunneicapillus proves to be a Mexi- can species, as appears to be tile case, the cactus wrens occuring along our southern border from the Rio Grande to the Pacific will probably have to be known as l-]eleodytes brunneicapillus couesi (Sharpe); though, as I said before, a race bry?nli may exist in the habitat ascribed to it by Anthony, though most as- suredly not as defined by Dr. Mearns. I wish here to express my thanks to Messrs. F. Stephens and G. F. Moreon for the loan of specimens from the Colorado Desert and various parts of Arizona, and to Mr. Joseph Grinnell for some additional specimens from southern California.
