BREWSTER : BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 203 



Sitta carolinensis lagunae Brewst. 

 St. Lucas Nuthatch. 



[Sitta carolinensis] var. aculeata CouES, Key N. Amer. Birds, 1872, 83, part. 



Sitta carolinensis, var. aculeata Coues, Check List, 1873, 11, no. 38 a, part. 



Sitta carolinensis aculeata (not of Alle\) Ridgwat, Norn. N. Amer. Birds (Bull. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 21), 1881, 14, no. 51 a, part. Coues, Check List, 2d ed., 

 1882, 29, no. 58, part. Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., VL 1883, 347 (Vic- 

 toria Mts.). A. 0. U., Check List, 1886, 331, no. 727 a, part. Bkyant, Proc. 

 Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., IL 1889, 316 (Victoria Mts.). 



Sitta carolinensis lagunae Brewster, Auk, VIIL 1891, 149 (orig. descr. ; types from 

 Sierra de la Laguna). Bryant, Zoe, II. 1891, 198 (Victoria Mts.) 



S.[itta] carolinensis aculeata Ridgwat, Man. N. Amer. Birds, 2d ed., 1896, 559, part. 



[Sitta carolinensis] var. lagunae Dubois, Synop. Avium, fasc. IX. 1901, 681 (Basse- 

 Californie). 



Although this race has not been recognized by the A. O. U. Committee, I 

 continue to regard it as a perfectly good subspecies. As I stated in connection 

 with my original description it differs very constantly from aculeata of north- 

 ern Mexico and the western United States in having decidedly shorter wings, 

 slightly shorter tail, and much narrower, bhickish, terminal markings on the 

 outer tail feathers. These differences are not, perhaps, very conspicuous, but 

 they seem to me to constitute better as well as obviously more readily avail- 

 able diagnostic characters than the slight dissimilarities in respent to color toifes 

 which alone serve to distinguish certain birds that have been accepted by the 

 Committee as subspecifically distinct. 



The St. Lucas Xuthatch is probably confined to the higher mountains south 

 of La Paz, where it was first detected by Mr. Belding in 1883. To Mr. Frazar, 

 however, is due the credit of collecting a sufficient series of specimens to bring 

 out the slight but nevertheless very tangible differences which distinguish it 

 from aculeata, to which INIr. Belding very naturally referred it. Mr. Frazar 

 met with it only on the Sierra de la Laguna, where, at all seasons, it is a rather 

 common l)ird inhabiting the pine forests at higii elevations. Specimens shot 

 early in May were incubating. It is possible that the White-bellied Nut- 

 hatches which Mr. Anthony found " rather rare but well distributed in the 

 pines " on San Pedro Martir ^ may also belong to this form, but they are more 

 likely to prove true aculeata. 



1 Zoe, IV. 1893, 246. 



