30 



Heleodytes stridulus sp. nov. Brown-backed Wren. 



Type No. 164261, ? ad., U. S. Nat. Mns., Biological Survey Collection, 

 from Sierra de Choix, northeastern Sinaloa, Mexico. Collected October 

 16, 1898, by E. A. Goldman. 



Distribution. Arid mountain slopes of northeastern Sinaloa and adja 

 cent parts of Sonora, Mexico. 



Description of type. Crown blackish brown, darkest on forehead ; super 

 ciliary stripe from bill to nape white, washed with fulvous brown ; loral 

 and postocular stripe blackish; cheeks from gape dingy whitish ; malar 

 stripe black ; sides of neck dingy whitish, streaked with dull blackish and 

 thinly washed with dull fulvous ; back and scapulars burnt umber brown, 

 marked with irregulau white shaft streaks and obscure blackish spots ; 

 upper tail coverts transversely barred with umber brown, black and 

 whitish ; outside of wings marked with spots of umber brown, black and 

 whitish; middle tail feathers ashy brown, indistinctly and narrowly 

 barred with blackish ; lateral feathers black, with dingy ashy tips and a 

 series of brownish white spots along outer webs; chin, throat, breast, 

 and middle of belly white, faintly washed with brown and spotted on 

 breast and flanks with black ; flanks- posteriorly and entire crissum cin 

 namon brown, brightest on under tail coverts. 



Measurements of type. Wing 75; tail 76; culmen 19.5; tarsus 24. 



General notes. This species is nearest H. gularis, from which it is easily 

 distinguished by the blackish brown crown, blackish postocular stripe, 

 and darker brown back. The black spots on breast and flanks are rounded 

 instead of being mainly pointed anteriorly (and thus subtriangular), as in 

 H. gularis. Typical specimens of H. gularis in the Biological Survey 

 Collection from the Sierra Nevada de Colima, southern Jalisco, and from 

 the Sierra Madre of southern Sinaloa and the Nayarit Mountains of Tepic, 

 just west of Bolanos, outline the known range of this species, and the 

 specimens from the mountains of Sonora referred to H. gularis by Salvin 

 and Godman (Ibis, 1889, p. 235) are, no doubt, referable to H. slrididas. 



Myadestes obscurua cinereus subsp. nov. Sonora Solitaire. 



Type No. 164262, 9 ad., U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey Collection, 

 from mountains near Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Collected January 3, 

 1899, by E. A. Goldman. 



Distribution. Arid mountains of southern Sonora and adjacent part of 

 Sinaloa, Mexico. 



tiubspecific characters. Most like M. yadestes o. insularis but with the ashy 

 gray of upper parts even paler than in that form and extending farther 

 down over fore back ; rump and middle tail feathers clearer ashy and 

 interscapular area less suffused with brown. Under parts much as in 

 M. o. occidentals but clearer ashy, with white area on abdomen more re 

 stricted than in insularis. 



Measurements of type. Wing 104; tail 104; culmen 11.5; tarsus 20. 



General notes. This form equals Myadestes o. occidenlalis in si/e but is 



