458 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



pen of Dr. Elliott Coues (1878), which so aptly describes the flocking 

 habit of the species: "They are extremely sociable — the gregarious in- 

 stinct common to the Titmice reaches its highest development in their 

 case, and flocks of forty or fifty — some say even of a hundred — may 

 be seen after tlie breeding season has passed, made up of numerous 

 families, which, soon after leaving the nest, meet kindred spirits, and 

 enter into intimate friendly relations. Often, in rambling through the 

 shrubbery, I have been suddenly surrounded by a troop of the busy 

 birds, perhaps unnoticed till the curious chirping they keep up attracted 

 my attention; they seemed to pervade the bushes. If I stood still, they 

 came close around me, as fearless as if I were a stump, ignoring me 

 altogether." 



PSALTRIPARUS MEI>ANOTIS LLOYDI Sennett 



LLOYD'S BUSHTIT 



HABITS 



Lloyd's bushtit was originally described by George B. Sennett (1888) 

 as a full species; Ridgway (1904) treated it as a subspecies of 

 Psaltriparus melanotis, the black-eared bushtit of Mexico. In his or- 

 iginal description Sennett stated that in the adult male the sides of the 

 head are "glossy black, which extends backward on each side, meeting 

 and forming a collar on lower back of neck." The adult female has the 

 "ear-patches clear glossy brown instead of black. ♦ * * This species is 

 distinct from P. melanotis, Black-eared Bush-Tit, by reason of total 

 absence of both brown on back and rufous on underparts. It is easily 

 distinguished from P. pliimbeus by the collar, and by the black instead 

 of ashy brown on sides of head. Aside from the head markings it is 

 more like P. plumbeus in color than P. melanotis, but it has a much 

 whiter throat and a larger bill." 



The range of Lloyd's bushtit, as given in the 1931 Check-list, includes 

 the "mountains of the southeastern desert region, mainly in the Upper 

 Austral Zone, from southern New Mexico and central western Texas 

 (mountains between Pecos River and Rio Grande) south into Sonora 

 and Chihuahua." 



Ridgway (1904) extended the range into southern Arizona, but 

 Swarth (1913) has shown that this was an error. The Arizona speci- 

 mens of the supposed lloydi race, originally named P. santarifae, are all 

 birds in juvenal plumage. Mr. Swarth (1913) has demonstrated that 

 the young of plumbeus, in juvenal plumage, have more or less black 

 markings on the head of the male, even in specimens taken as far away 

 from the supposed range of lloydi as Nevada. This matter is fully 

 discussed in his paper, to which the reader is referred. 



