BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 159 



All my males of this species from the Cape Region have tawny postocular 

 stripes and more or less well-defined, median crown or occipital stripes or 

 spots of the same color. It has been asserted that these markings are peculiar 

 to the bird of Lower California and the Pacific slope of the United States and 

 British America (for which the name capitalis was proposed by Baird), but, as 

 Mr. Ridgway has recently indicated/ they are not always present in specimens 

 from the regions just mentioned, nor invariabl\- absent in those from the inte- 

 rior of North America and Mexico. Striking, and to my mind conclusive, 

 proof of their fallibility as distinguishing characters is afforded by two breeding 

 males taken at Pinos Altos, Chihuahua, INIexico, on June 5 and 8, respectively. 

 One of these has the black of the head perfectly uniform save behind the eyes, 

 where there are a few inconspicuous spots of tawny; in the other there is a 

 well-marked light postocular stripe, and a broad conspicuous median patch of 

 tawny reaching from about the center of the crown to the vertex. In other 

 words, the former specimen is nearly typical of nulanocephala , the latter aboi'.t 

 an average example of capitalis. 



Mr. Frazar notes the Black-lieaded Grosbeak as " resident during the entire 

 year " in the Cape Region, but his collection contains no specimen taken later 

 in spring than May 4, nor earlier in summer than July 22. He found the 

 species at La Paz, where it was rare in February, more numerous in March ; 

 about Santiago, where it was common in late August ; at San Jose del Rancho, 

 where it was frequently seen in December ;. and on the Sierra de la Laguna, 

 where a single specimen was taken on May 4th. 



Mr. Bryant says that "it is not common in the northwest, according to 

 Messrs. Belding and Anthony. The former found it breeding at Valle Trini- 

 dad, and saw a single specimen on Cerros Island, and the latter at San Rafael. 

 I obtained a single pair at Comondu April 22, 1888." 



This Grosbeak breeds in the Sierra Madre Mountains as far south as Chi- 

 huahua, and I have spring specimens from Alamos, in western Mexico. It is 

 a common summer resident of most parts of California and ranges northward 

 into British Columbia. 



Guiraca caerulea lazula (Lesson). 

 Western Blue Grosbeak. 



GutTaca caerulea (not Luzula caerulea Linxaecs) Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 



V. 1883, 546 (San Jose del Cabo). 

 Guiraca caerulea eurhyncha Bktant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 305 



(San Jose' del Cabo). 



Mr. Frazar's specimens, all but one of which are either females or young 



mnles in the bro\vn plumage, agree closely with birds in my collection from 



western Mexico and various localities near the southern border of the western 



United States. 



1 Birds N. and Midd. Amer., pt. L 1901, 619, footnote. 



