BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 3 



of the American Museum, and to Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Mr. Samuel 

 Henshaw, Mr. Walter Faxon, Mr. Harry C. Oberholser, and Dr. Cliarles 

 W. Richmond, for assistance of various kinds. In short, all these as 

 well as others of my friends have responded most generously to the calls 

 which I have made upon them. 



The task of pi-eparing the synonymy has been intrusted to my assist- 

 ant, l\Ir. Walter Deane, who has performed it with infinite care and 

 faithfulness, verifying every citation by direct examination of the orig- 

 inal text. A fuller synonymy has been given for the thirty or more birds 

 which appear to be either peculiar to the region under consideration or 

 especially prominent members of its summer ftxuna, but in the cases of 

 most of the others Mr. Deaue has cited only publications which relate 

 more or loss directly to this region, giving no references to the more 

 general works on ornithology save where these include original descrip- 

 tions, illustrations, or critical discussions strictly pertinent to the subject 

 in hand. In other words, the synonymy is intended to serve, at least 

 primarily, merely as an index to what has been published on the char- 

 acteristic birds of the Cape Region, and on the local history only of 

 those which visit it during migration or in winter, or which breed but 

 casually or very sparingly within its confines. 



All the original measurements are in inches and hundredths of an 

 inch. 



Cape Region of Lower California, 



Mr. Bryant^ defines this region as comprising "■ that terminal portion 

 of the peninsula southward from the northern base of the mountains 

 between La Paz on the Gulf shore and the town of Todos Santos on the 

 Pacific Coast." He adds, " There is no more sharply defined faunal and 

 flora area, that occui's to me now, excepting that of islands, than is em- 

 braced in the region above defined. Part of it lies within the Tropic 

 of Cancer, and the balance along the Gulf shore, and having mainly a 

 Gulf drainage. The climate as influenced by its peculiar sea-bound 

 tropical situation and rainy seasons is distinctively different from any- 

 thing existing to the northward. . . . Mainly a mountainous section, 

 some of the peaks being 6,000 feet high, it is separated for an hundred 

 miles or more from the peninsula northward by a long expanse of low, 

 level or rolling country." 



Mr. T. S. Braudegee writes me : " In reply to your question con- 



1 Zoe, II. 1891, 185, 186. 



