BREWSTER ; BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION. LOWER CALIFORNIA. 119 



Sayornis nigricans (Swains.). 

 Black Phoebe. 



Sayornis nigricans Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, 301, 303 (Cape St. 

 Lucas). Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V. 1883, 542 (Cape Region). 

 Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 290 (Cape St. Lucas; 

 Cape Region). 



Sayornis nigricans semiatra (Vigors) has been recently resuscitated by Mr. 

 Nelson ^ and adopted as a good subspecies in the Tenth Supplement of the 

 A. 0. U. Check List. It is said to inhabit the " Pacific coast of Mexico and 

 the United States from Colima to Oregon, including most of Arizona," and to 

 have the " under tail-coverts pure white," while true nigricans is supposed to 

 be confined to Texas, New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and the interior and 

 eastern parts of Mexico, and to have the corresponding feathers " white more 

 or less broadly striped with dusky." From this it would appear that the bird 

 of Lower California should be semiatra, but of my mature specimens (thirty- 

 one in number) from the Cape Region, not one has the under tail coverts 

 wholly immaculate, while the greater number possess conspicuous dusky 

 shaft stripes on these feathers. The same thing is true in a general way of 

 my examples from California, although one of the latter really does lack all 

 trace of the markings just mentioned. Most of my numerous specimens 

 from regions included within the habitat assigned to nigricans by Mr. Nel- 

 son undeniably show rather more of this dusky than is possessed by the 

 average bird from the Pacific coast, but the difi"erence seems to me too trifling 

 and inconstant to deserve anything more than passing notice. Scarcely more 

 important, in my estimation, is the fact that the Black Pewees of the Cape 

 Region are usually, but by no means invariably, distinguishable from those of 

 all other regions represented in my collection by their slightly larger (broader 

 as well as longer) bills and comparatively faded, brownish coloring. 



Mr. Belding gives this species as rare in the Cape Region. Mr. Frazar did 

 not take it at La Paz, but further southward it is generally distributed and 

 rather common at all seasons, ranging from San Jose del Cabo on the coast to 

 the summit of the Sierra de la Laguna. It prefers the hilly country at the 

 bases of the mountains, however, and is seldom seen far from water. Young 

 on wing were met with at Triunfo in April. At Comondu Mr. Bryant found 

 eggs "March 13, and full-fledged young April 9, 1888." 



The Black Phoebe is found from Oregon to southern Mexico on the Pacific 

 slope. 



1 Auk, XVII. 1900, 124, 125. 



