Nelson North American Mainland Myiarchus. 47 



Myiarchus lawrencei querulus subsp. nov. 



QUERULOUS FLYCATCHER. 



Type. No. 185,220, adult male, U. S. National Museum, Biological Sur 

 vey Collection. From Los Reyes, Michoacan, Mexico. Collected February 

 17, 1903, by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman. 



Breeding range. Southern end of Mexican tableland from central 

 Jalisco, Michoacan, Hidalgo and state of Mexico south through Colima, 

 Guerrero, part of Puebla and Oaxaca to Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where 

 it passes into true lawrencei. Not migratory. 



Zonal distribution. Arid Tropical to Upper Sonoran. 



Subspecific characters. Color most like platyrhynchus but size larger 

 (almost equalling lawrencei from northeastern Mexico), and inner borders 

 of tail feathers usually more or less edged with buffy. 



Description of fresh plumage. Crown nearly clove brown, with a slight 

 wash of olive, distinctly darker than back; back slightly grayish olive 

 but darker and more greenish than in olivascens; upper tail coverts dark 

 hair brown, more or less bordered and shaded with cinnamon; outer 

 edges of tail feathers thinly bordered with russet; wing coverts tipped 

 with Isabella color; secondaries and all but outer primaries narrowly 

 edged with russet; chin, throat and breast clear ash gray; abdomen and 

 under tail coverts rich straw yellow; inner webs of inner tail feathers 

 usually narrowly bordered with ochracepus buffy. 



Young in first plumage. The same as in lawrencei, but paler, especially 

 on crown and underparts. 



Measurements. Averages of ten adult males: Wing, 86.1 (83-90); tail, 

 83.3 (80-86); culmen, 17.3 (17-18); tarsus, 19.6 (19-20). 



Averages of five adult females: Wing, 81.6 (78-87); tail, 79.2 (76-83); 

 culmen, 17(16.5-17.5); tarsus, 19.4(19-20). 



General notes. Specimens of the present form have hitherto been con 

 fused with the smaller and paler olivascens, but the Biological Survey 

 series from all parts of western and southern Mexico make it plain that 

 there are two recognizable forms on the mainland north of the Isthmus 

 of Tehuantepec. The southern one, querulus, occupies an area lying 

 between the more arid home of olivascens and the still more humid one 

 of true lawrencei. One of the unexpected characters of querulus is its 

 large size almost the same as of lawrencei of northeastern Mexico, and 

 considerably exceeding that of olivascens or of the representatives of 

 lawrencei where their two ranges come in contact. Its large size also 

 separates it at once from platyrhynchus. It is paler than lawrencei and 

 with less strongly marked rufous borders to wings and tail. Some spec 

 imens, especially from Hidalgo and certain other tableland localities, 

 sometimes lack the buffy inner edging to the tail feathers, but their 

 large size and general coloration distinguishes them. 



