BREWSTEU: BIKDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 173 



'Sh. Eidgvvay in the Manual ^ restricts the distribution of L. I. gam- 

 beli to "California, especially coast district," at the same time including 

 Lower California in the habitat of excubitorides, but the majority of the 

 Shrikes collected by Mr. Frazar are certainly gambeli. They are quite as 

 dark both above and beneath as any of my California examples, and, like the 

 latter, are very distinctly " undulated on the breast with grayish." The series 

 contains several specimens, however, which are variously intermediate between 

 the two forms just mentioned, and one bird (male, No. 15,433, Triunfo, De- 

 cember 14, 1883), which has the gray of the upper parts nearly as pure and 

 light, and the white of the lower parts almost as clear, as in the most extreme 

 representatives of excubitorides. To this form it must be referred, despite 

 the fact that it shows a few faint transverse lines on the breast and sides, — 

 a feature by no means uncommon in autumnal specimens of excubitorides. 



Two birds (Nos. 86,256 $, and 86,257 9 ) in the National Museum Collec- 

 tion, both taken at La Paz, on December 15, 1881, by Mr. Belding, are also 

 referable to excubitorides, although neither is typical of that form. A third ex- 

 ample (No. 26,438) without date, obtained by Xantus at Todos Santos, is in 

 excessively worn plumage and looks like a breeding bird. The feathers are so 

 ragged and faded that their original coloring can only be guessed at. This 

 specimen is remarkable in respect to its bill, which in length exceeds that of 

 any representative of the ludovicianns group which I have examined, while its 

 depth is also exceptional, as will be seen by the following measurements : — 

 Length of culmen from base, .97 ; from feathers, .73 ; from nostril, .55 ; depth 

 of bill at nostril, .38. 



This is the common and characteristic Shrike of the Cape Region, where, 

 however, according to Mr. Frazar, it does not breed, all the binls which he met 

 with being observed in autumn, winter, or early spring. Their southward 

 migration evidently begins at a rather early date, for he noted a specimen at 

 San Jose del Cabo on August 31, and a "marked increase" in nuniljers by 

 September 10. They were rather rare at Triunfo in December, but very 

 common about La Paz in January and February. Mr. Bryant "found on 

 Cerros, Guadalupe, and Santa Margarita Islands, and in several places on 

 the peninsula, birds which have been referred to this race. Some Mexican 

 children at Juncal had six young in a cage, supposing they were mocking- 

 birds." The last statement establishes the fact that some form of Lanius 

 breeds at Juncal, which is near the Pacific coast of the Peninsula opposite Mag- 

 dalena Island, and hence not ftxr to the northward of the Cape Region, but 

 whether or not Mr. Bryant was correct in referring the young which he saw 

 to gambeli is perhaps open to question. He states that Mr. Anthony has met 

 with the latter race " along the entire northwestern coast region " of Lower 

 California. 



1 Man. N. Amer. Birds, 2(J ed., 1896, 467. 



