BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 167 



Tachycineta thalassina lepida (Meabns). 

 Northern Violet-green Swallow. 



(f) Hirundo thnlassina Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila , 1859, 301, 30-3, part 



(Cape St. Lucas) ; Rev. Amer. Birds, pt. I. 1865, 299 part (crit. ; Cape St. 



Lucas ; San Jose). 

 (?) Tachi/ciueta thalassina Beldixg, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V. 1883,537, part (Cape 



Kegion). Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 306, part (Cape 



Region). 



Dr. Mearns has recently separated the Yiolet-green Swallow which breeds 

 throuirhout the western United States from that inhabitinc^ tbe southern table- 

 lands of Mexico, restricting the name thalassina to the latter and bestowing 

 on the former the name lepida.'^ He considers the two birds specifically 

 distinct, but his text indicates that some of the specimens which he examined 

 from northern Mexico were really intergrades, and I have others from the same 

 region which unquestionably must be so regarded. 



Mr. Frazar took a typical female of lepida at La Paz on February 14. This, 

 so far as I know, is the only specimen which has been thus far obtained in 

 the Cape Region, but there can be little doubt that lepida occurs there more 

 or le.ss regularly and numerously in winter or during migration. ^Ir. Nelson 

 writes me that it is the characteristic form of northern Lower California, from 

 which we may infer that it was the bird found by Mr. Anthony about San 

 Pedro Martir " nesting in hollow pines," and " very abundant from Valla- 

 dares to the top of the mountain." 2 



Tachycineta thalassina brachyptera, subsp. nov. 

 St. Lucas Swallow. 



Hirundo thalassina Baird, Cat. N. Amer. Birds, 1859, no. 228, part; Proc. Acad. 



Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, 301, 303, part at least (Cape St. Lucas) ; Rev. Amer. 



Birds, pt. I. 1865, 299, part at least (crit.; Cape St. Lucas; San .Jose). 



Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Hist. N. Amer. Birds, I. 1874, 347-349, 



part. 

 [Tachijcineta] thalassina Codes, Key N. Amer. Birds, 1872. 113, part. 

 Tachifcinetii thalassina Coues, Check List, 1873, 23, no. 113, part ; 2d ed., 1882, 42, 



no. 161, part. Ridgway, Nom. N. Amer. Birds (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 



21), 1881, 20, no. 156, part. Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V. 1883, 537, 



1 Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XV. 1902, 31, 32. 



2 Zoe, IV. 1893, 243 



