BREWSTER : BIRDS OF TOE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 129 



percentage of males, not greater, apparently, in autumn than during the 

 breeding season, have the wings and tail light grayish brown, the rump and 

 posterior under parts, as well as sometimes the entire upper parts also, dull 

 orange-yellow, tinged with brown on the back. In such specimens the throat, 

 jugulum, and breast are always black, although the sides of the neck are often 

 pure olive-yellow. It is possible, of course, that this plumage is a mark of 

 immaturity, but it occurs quite as frequently among breeding birds as with 

 those taken in autumn, while several of the latter, which I take to be young, 

 are distinguishable from others, certainly adult, only by having the feathers of 

 the hind back tipped with ashy white, giving the plumage of this part a scaled 

 appearance. Traces of this white tipping also occur on one or two of my 

 spring specimens. Both young and old in autumn differ from spring birds in 

 having the yellow of the rump and under parts deeper (gamboge rather than 

 lemon) and the inner secondaries broadly and conspicuously bordered on 

 their outer webs with pure white, this always extending around the tips of the 

 feathers and backward a little wav aloncr the edges of the inner webs. The 

 greater coverts, also, are much more broadly white-tipped than in spring. 



Mr. Ridgway describes the adult female of this species ^ as whollj^ without 

 black, but all of my fifteen spring specimens from Lower California have the 

 entire throat, jugulum, and breast unmixed black, of a duller shade, however, 

 than in the male. Three of them also have the whole top and sides of the 

 head and nape black, and the back dark slaty brown ^vithout admixture of 

 olive or greenish. The others have the head above and on the sides, as well as 

 the sides of the neck, more or less olivaceous, while in two or three the chin 

 and sides of the throat are also mixed with grayish or olive. Several spring 

 females in my collection and that of the American Museum, from Arizona and 

 northwestern Mexico, as well as two autumnal females from Lower California, 

 agree closely with Mr. Ridgway's description. A third autumnal female from 

 Lower California differs from these specimens only in ha\'ing a cluster of black 

 spots on the breast. The nine females which make up the balance of my 

 autumnal series from Lower California do not differ appreciably from the 

 spring birds of the same sex above described, excepting that, like the males in 

 autumn, they have the white bordering the wing coverts and secondaries much 

 broader and purer than in spring, and the black feathers of the head, throat, 

 etc., more or less tipped with olivaceous. 



The case may be stated more briefly and generally as follows: — Eight of the 

 forty-seven spiing males and four of the twenty-five autumnal males have the 

 under parts as well as the top of the head and the back more or less olivaceous. 

 Three of the twenty-four spring females are wholly without black on the head, 

 throat, and breast. Two of the thirteen autumnal females lack all traces of 

 black on these parts, while a third has only a cluster of black spots on the 

 breast. 



Juvenal plumage: — Both sexes closely resemble the plain olive phase of the 

 adult female, from which they difler only in having the upper parts browner, 



1 Man. N. Amer. Birds, 1887, 373. 



VOL. XLI. — NO. 1 9 



