DENDRECA. 14] 
being conspicuous by their scarlet colour. The eggs Mr. Brewster describes as peculiar, 
having a white ground, more or less thinly but evenly covered with fine but distinct 
spots of light reddish brown. Other eggs have much heavier markings. 
17. Dendreca townsendi. 
Sylvia townsendi, Towns. Journ. Ac. Phil. vii. p. 191' (ex Nuttall). 
Dendreca townsendi, Scl. P. Z. 8. 1858, p. 2987; 1859, p. 3742; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 11*; 
Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 185°; Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 265°; Coues, B. 
Col. Vall. i. p. 260”. : 
Sylvia melanocausta, Licht. in Mus. Berol. °. 
Supra olivacea, interscapulio maculis celatis nigris notato, capite toto cum gula nigris, superciliis elongatis, 
macula suboculari et stria lata cervicis utrinque flavissimis ; alis et cauda nigris, cinereo limbatis, illis 
albo bifasciatis, hac sicut in speciebus affinibus albo notata; subtus abdomine antico flavo, postico albo; 
hypochondriis et crisso nigro striatis. (Descr. maris ex Duefias, Guatemala. Mus. nostr.) 
@ mari similis, pileo et genis dorso concoloribus, hypochondriorum striis obsoletis. (Descr. femine ex Dueiias, 
Guatemala. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Nort America, Rocky Mountains to the Pacific from Alaska? southwards 67.— 
Mexico, N.W. Mexico (J. G. Bell®), Oaxaca (Deppe, Mus. Berol.), La Parada 2, 
Totontepec * (Boucard); Guatnmata, Duefias 4, Volcan de Fuego and Coban (0. S. 
& F.D. G.). 
Though no mention is made of this species by Lichtenstein in his published list of 
Deppe’s Mexican collections, the specimens now in the Berlin Museum standing under 
the manuscript name of Sylvia melanocausta were doubtless the first obtained by any 
naturalist. A few years afterwards it was again discovered by Nuttall and Townsend 
during their memorable journey to the Pacific in 1835. 
Within our territory it is only known as a winter visitant, the Mexican records being 
almost confined to its occurrence in the State of Oaxaca, where Deppe discovered it and 
where Boucard afterwards met with it. In Guatemala it is more abundant on the 
slopes of the mountains bordering the Pacific than elsewhere, though we have specimens 
captured at Coban in Vera Paz. In the Volcan de Fuego we found it at elevations 
ranging from under 5000 to 10,000 and 12,000 feet, the latter altitude including the 
pine-clad summit of the mountain. In its habits it resembles D. virens and its imme- 
diate allies. 
Of its breeding nothing is as yet known. In the western States it has usually 
been observed in autumn, and then migrating. Its summer quarters are probably as 
far north as Alaska, where it was obtained by Wahlberg?; but Dr. Coues thinks 
that the pine-belts of the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona may shelter some 
birds during the breeding-season ’. 
