162 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPAEATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



birds vary exceedingly in coloring, no two of them being precisely alike. Some 

 of the duller specimens resemble the adult female, from which, however, they 

 can be easily distinguished by the reddish tinge of their crowns and cheeks. 

 Others again are mottled with dull purple on the throat and sides of the head, 

 with lavender blue on the crown. In still others the entire plumage of the 

 body is variegated with various shades of blue, purple, and brown, presenting 

 a curiously piebald appearance. 



In Lower California, this bird, as far as known, is strictly confined to the 

 Cape Region. Indeed, it does not appear to range even so far northward as 

 La Paz. Mr. Belding mentions it only in his list of " species found at San 

 Jose del Cabo from April 1 to May 17," and characterizes it as "rare." Mr. 

 Frazar met with it first at Triunfo, where three were taken on April 13, and 

 where it soon became so abundant that " over one hundred were seen on 

 April 21." Through June and July it was less numerous, but yet very 

 common here as well as at Pierce's Ranch. At San Jose del Cabo a speci- 

 men was shot late in August and two others early in October, while in 

 December four were taken at Triunfo and two at San Jose del Rancho; the 

 last on the 23d. These dates indicate that at least some of the birds are 

 resident, but Mr. Frazar thinks that by far the greater number leave Lower 

 California in autumn and pass the winter elsewhere, probably in western 

 Mexico. From the latter region I have a large series of specimens, including 

 several taken in winter (February) at Alamos, and in May and June near 

 Oposura. 



" Though found close up to the Texan frontier of the United States, the only 

 claim C. versicolor had for a long time to be included in the birds of North. 

 America was its occurrence in the peninsula of Lower California, where it 

 breeds, Mr. Xantus having found a nest and three eggs on May 5th at Cape 

 San Lucas." ^ 



Spiza americana (Gmel.). 



DiCKCISSEL. 



This species, new to Lower California, is represented in Mr. Frazar's collec- 

 tion by a single female, taken at San Jose del Cabo on September 27, 1887. 

 No others were seen, and the bird just mentioned was doubtless a mere waif 

 whicii had lost its way and wandered from the usual path of migration, for 

 S. americana is practically unknown west of the Rocky Mountains ^ in the 

 United States, and none of my collectors have obtained it in western Mexico. 

 Colonel Grayson, however, records two specimens taken near Mazatlan " in the 



1 Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, I. 1886, 361, 362. 



2 One of the most western records is that by Mr. Scott (Auk, IV. 1887, 205) of 

 a female taken by Mr. Herbert Brown, near Tucson, Arizona, on September 11, 

 1884. 



