MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 285 



into the hands of the assiduous species hunters. As remarked in Part III 

 (p. 234), Florida and New England specimens are as different from each 

 other as are the so-called Agelceus phceniceus of the Northeastern States, 

 the A. tricolor and the A. gubernalor from each other. 



Specimens of A. phceniceus from Louisiana I find correspond very nearly 

 in every respect with the specimens from Florida. I have also before me 

 one specimen from Maine with the shoulder-patch as highly colored, and 

 with nearly as long a bill as is found in the specimens from Florida. 



Plate VI shows the average form of the bill in Florida and Massachu- 

 setts specimens, and the annexed table of measurements the difference in 

 general size. They also illustrate individual variation. 



The following measurements of seventy specimens of this species from 

 Massachusetts (forty males and thirty females), eighteen specimens from 

 South Carolina and Florida (eleven males and seven females), and thirteen 

 specimens from California (four males and nine females), exhibit, besides 

 the average size and the individual variation at the same locality (espe- 

 cially in the case of those from Massachusetts), several interesting facts in 

 respect to geographical variation. While the northern specimens (see the 

 summary of these measurements given below) are somewhat larger than 

 the southern ones, the latter have the longer head (including the bill), and 

 also the longer bill. The height and width of the bill at the base re- 

 maining essentially the same in both, the southern ones have the bill 

 relatively more attenuated. The difference in this respect is more strik- 

 ing than the measurements given seem to indicate. The California 

 specimens closely resemble those from Florida, not only in respect to size, 

 but in regard to the size and form of the bill, and also in respect to color ; 

 these, as well as the Florida ones, belonging to the southern tvpe. As 

 previously remarked, they bear a much closer resemblance to the Florida 

 form in every respect than to that found in New England.* 



The individual variation in this species seems to be very great everv- 

 where, the variation in specimens of the same sex from the same locality 

 being fully fifteen per cent of the average size at that locality. 

 * The affinities of Agelaus gubernator and A. tricolor witli A. phce?iieetis are acknowl- 

 edged to be exceedingly close. Professor Baird cites, in his Birds of North America, 

 one specimen of the A. phceniceus from San Jo«e, California, and five from Fort Steila- 

 coom, W. T. He also cites specimens of A. gubernator from Petaluma and San Fran- 

 cisco, Cal.; hut Dr. Cooper regards this species as "limited to the interior of the State" 

 (California), while those found along the coast, he say?, clearly resemble the eastern 

 bird. (Ornithology of California, Vol. I, p. 264.) From the close res .already 



alluded to, of both the A. gubernator and .4. tricolor to A. phceniceus, and their occur- 

 rence mainly in the hot valleys of California and the region more to the south- 

 ward, I can scarcely doubt that these forms, especially A. gubernator, are the southern 

 smaller, brighter colored, more attenuated billed western homologues of the similar 

 eastern form from Florida and the Gulf States. 



