BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 631 



excepting- Florida and the immediate coast westward to Louisiana, 

 are practically identical, although examples from the Mississippi Val- 

 ley average more brightly colored in the males and slightly grayer in 

 the females than those from the Atlantic coast district, this varia- 

 tion being carried still further, though by no means to a conspicuous 

 degree, in specimens from Texas and the Mexican States of Tamau- 

 lipas, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, and Hidalgo. Examples from 

 the peninsula of Florida, hoAvever, are noticeabh' smaller than 

 those from any part of the very extensive area just designated, and 

 are also decidedly darker in color, and constitute a fairly well-marked 

 geographic race, which approaches in its characters the small and 

 intensely colored forms of Yucatan, British Honduras, and adjacent 

 parts of southeastern Mexico. All of the latter are characterized by 

 maximum intensity of coloration, the males being far more intensely 

 red than those from more northern localities or from the western 

 parts of Mexico, the color of the crest l)eing almost as pureh" red as 

 the under parts, the back being without the grayish margins to the 

 feathers which are always (except in much-worn mid-summer plum- 

 age) conspicuous in specimens from other districts. The females, 

 at the same time, have a richly ochraceous or tawn}- coloration, with 

 always a very distinct black or grayish black capistrum, which is 

 rarely well marked and never black in other forms. Cardinals of 

 this type include four local modifications: (1) A larger form from the 

 eastern slope of Vera Cruz {C cardinaiis coccineus); (2) a still larger 

 form from the southern lowlands of Vera Cruz, the males of which 

 have the red of a peculiar rich carmine-red hue {C cardwalis litto- 

 Talis)\ (3) the Yucatan and British Honduras bird, which is like C. 

 cardinaiis coccineiis in color, but much smaller; and (4) the insular 

 form of Cozumel {C. caTdinaUs saturatus)^ which is like the Yucatan 

 form, but larger and darker, with decidedly larger bill and feet. 



There is a wide extent of territor}^ extending from western Texas 

 through New Mexico and southward over a considerable part of the 

 central plateau of Mexico from which no specimens of Cardinaiis have 

 been examined; possibly they do not occur there, unless in limited 

 localities along the eastern and western borders. Immediately west of 

 this area, however, in southern Arizona and southward for an unde- 

 termined distance in northwestern Mexico, the Cardinals {O. e. super- 

 hus) are much larger than those from any other region. As to colora- 

 tion, they are characterized bj^ conspicuous gray margins to the dorsal 

 feathers (as in eastern examples), a slightly ros}" tint of red, and a 

 very narrow and interrupted black frontlet in the males; and the 

 females, instead of having a grayish capistrum, as in all others from 

 the United States, or a black capistrum like those from southern Mexico, 

 have the same marking lighter in color than the adjacent parts, the 

 chin and throat being usually verj^ pale grayish or whitish. This tj'ue 



