68 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Symphemia semipalmata inornata Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 

 273 (near La Paz). 



My reference of the specimens taken by Mr. Frazar to this form is tentative 

 and based largely on geographical considerations, for I confess that I am quite 

 unable to find any characters which may be depended on to separate inoriuda 

 from semipalmata when in the gray plumage. The difference in size is merely 

 an average difference, and in winter the two birds appear to be colored pre- 

 cisely alike. It is, indeed, not impossible that both forms are represented in 

 my series from the Cape Region, although certainly more probable that all 

 the birds which visit the Peninsula, as well as those which occur in California, 

 are inornata. 



Mr. Frazar met with this Willet in winter at La Paz and in autumn at San 

 Jose del Cabo, where the first individual was seen on September 6, the last on 

 October 18. The birds were not numerous at either place, and only four 

 specimens were taken. 



Mr. Belding seems to have had a different e.x;perience, for he found Willets, 

 which presumably belonged to this subspecies " very common in winter " 

 south of latitude 24"^ 30'. Mr. Bryant speaks of seeing the Western Willet at 

 Magdalena Bay in April (as late as the 28th) and he further states that " at 

 San Quintin Bay Mr. Anthony noted them as abundant in winter, and a few 

 were seen throughout the summer." 



The Willet has a very extended range, occurring from about 56° N. latitude 

 to the Pampas in South America. Neither the summer nor winter distribu- 

 tion of the subspecies inornata is at all definitely known, but it has been found 

 in winter in the southern United States and it certainly breeds in Utah, 

 Dakota, and other inland districts of North A<nerica. Mr. Grinnell reports 

 that it is a " common migrant and occasional through the winter on the 

 tide marshes along the coast " of Los Angeles county, California.^ 



Heteractitis incanus (Gmel.). 



Wandering Tatler. 



Mr. Ridgway, in the Manual,^ says that the adult of H. incanus in the winter 

 plumage is " without any bars on lower parts," but two of Mr. Frazar's speci- 

 mens, both taken on October 1 and otherwise in apparently full winter dress, 

 have the middle of the breast, the abdomen, and the under tail coverts rather 

 conspicuously and coarsely barred with slaty brown. A third, shot the same 

 day, has the breast and sides similarly barred, but the middle of the abdomen 

 and the under tail coverts are immaculate. As the barred feathers in all three 

 birds are more or less worn and apparently remnants of the summer plumage, 

 it is probable that they would have disappeared later in the season. 



1 Pub. II. Pasadena Acad. Sci., 1898, 17. 



2 Man. N. Amer. Birds, 2d ed., 1896, 167. 



