420 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



bb. Pileum brown, very different from gray of ])ack. 

 c. Back, etc., darker and browner gray. {Psaltriparus minimus.) 

 d. Darker, the sides and flanks strongly smoky l)rown. « 

 ('. Darker. (Vicinity of Puget Sound, Washington; southern British 



Cohimbia?) Psaltriparus minimus saturatus (p. 434) 



ec. Paler. (Coast district, from the Colum])ia River to northern Lower 



California. ) Psaltriparus minimus minimus (p. 432) 



(III. Paler, the sides and flanks more faintly smoky brown. (Interior dis- 

 tricts of California and Oregon, from Walkers Basin to the Columbia 



River. ) Psaltriparus minimus californicus ( p. 435 ) 



cc. Back, etc., paler and clearer gray. (Cape St. Lucas district. Lower Califor- 

 nia.) Psaltriparus grindae (p. 436) 



PSALTRIPARUS MELANOTIS MELANOTIS (Hartlaub). 

 BLACK-EARED BUSH-TIT. 



Adult 'male. — Pileum plain slate-gray, usually paler anteriorly, the 

 forehead sometimes whitish; sides of head, including loral, orbital, 

 suborl)ital, malar, and auricular regions glossy greenish black or 

 bluish black, this continued round hindneck as a narrow collar; l)ack, 

 scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts, plain 

 brownish olive or olive-brown, the rump slightly browner; wings 

 (except lesser coverts) and tail dull slate color with pale gray edgings; 

 chin and sides of upper throat black, or mostly so; thi'oat (except 

 sides of upper portion), chest, and sides of neck white; breast ver}^ 

 pale l)uffy gray or grayish buff, deeper and more bufl'y posteriorly; 

 femoral and anal regions cinnamon-buff", the under tail-coverts simi- 

 lar, l)ut paler; sides and flanks, grayish ecru drab; thighs, dull bitffy 

 whitish; axillars and under wing-coverts clear buffy white; bill, legs, 

 and feet black; length (skins), 90-100 (100); wing, 48-50.5 (49.2); tail, 

 50.5-55 (52.3); culmen, 6-T.5 (6.9); tarsus, 14.5-17(15.9); middle toe, 

 7.5-9 (8.5). 



Adult female. — Similar to the adult male, but sides of head light 

 brown (hair brown, broccoli brown, or drab) instead of black,'^ and 



« Owing to the circumstance that there is a very decided seasonal difference in 

 coloration, autumnal and winter birds being much darker than those taken in spring 

 and summer, a very concise statement of the differential characters of the several 

 forms in the "Key" is scarcely practicable. The comparison is therefore based on 

 the autumnal and winter plumage alone, in which the color differences are more 

 obvious than in the spring and summer plumage. It may be explained, further, 

 that the winter plumage of the palest form {californicus) is much like the summer 

 plumage of the one next darker (minimus), while the winter plumage of the latter 

 is much like the summer plumage of the darkest form {saturatus). These seasonal 

 differences of coloration should, of course, be taken into account in the determination 

 of specimens; any comparison which ignores them being, obviously, without value. 



f> Usually there is more or less of a black patch on sides of occiput (behind auric- 

 ular region) , the two of opposite sides often connected across the hindneck, and 

 sometimes the black is continued anteriorly as a postocular streak. 



