BREWSTER: BIEDS OF THE CAPE KEGIOX, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 199 



quently with apparently mature specimens taken in spring as with young 

 in autumn, while it is not present in any of the young in juvenal plumage. 

 Moreover, these crown spots are not " whitish " in any of my specimens, but 

 always more or less rusty and often deep golden Lrown. 



In respect to the size, shape, and distribution of the dark markings of 

 the under parts, there is quite as much variation as in most conspicuously 

 spotted birds. Some of the more heavily marked specimens, especially the 

 autumnal ones with rich buffy abdomens and flanks, resemble the lighter 

 colored examples of hrunneicapillas very closely, but the difference in the tail 

 markings of the two species is so pronounced and constant that it can be relied 

 upon to separate birds of any age or plumage. I have had no opportunity, 

 however, of testing the characters by which the form hryanti is said to be 

 distinguishable from affinis. 



In the Cape Region proper the St. Lucas Cactus Wren is everywhere a common 

 resident excepting on the higher mountains, where it appears to be wholly 

 wanting. Its favorite haunts are the arid, cactus-grown plains near the coast 

 and the almost equally barren and waterless foot-hills, but at San Jose del Cabo 

 Mr. Frazar found it abundant in gardens and among shrubbery near or even 

 directly over water. At this place birds were seen carrying sticks in their 

 bills, apparently for .the purpose of nest-building, as late as October IS, and 

 the same thint; was observed at Santiago about the middle of November. The 

 sexual organs of the specimens killed at this time did not indicate, however, 

 that any of them were breeding or about to breed. 



Until somewhat recently the St. Lucas Wren was supposed to be confined 

 to the Cape Eegion, but in 1888 and 1889 Mr. Bryant ascertained that it is 

 also very generally distributed throughout the central portion of the Penin- 

 sula. Indeed he has reported its occurrence as far to the northward as San 

 Quintin, but the birds of that locality have been since referred by Mr. Anthony 

 to the closely allied H. b. hryanti, which is said to be easily distinguishable 

 from both briameicapillus and affinis by the exceptionally heavy dark markings 

 on its under parts, but which, in other respects, is " practically intermediate" 

 between these forms. ^ Mr. Anthony thinks that hryanti will be found to 

 grade into affinis " at a point at no great distance south of San Fernando," ^ and 

 his material apparently establishes its complete intergradation with hrunnei- 

 capillus in the more eastern parts of southern California. 



Salpinctes obsoletus (Sat). 



Rock Wren. 



Salpinctes ohsoletus Baird, Hev. Amer. Birds, pt. 1. 1864, 110 (crit. ; Cape St. Lucas). 

 Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, I. 1880, 71 (Cape St. Lucas). 

 Belding, Proe. U. S. Nat. Mus , V. 188.3, 5-35 (Cape Region). Bktant, Proc. 

 Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d sen, II. 1889, 315 (Cape Region). 



1 Anthony, XI. 1894, 212. 2 Auk, XIL 1895, 280. 



