BIRDS — PAKIDAE PARUS OCCIDENTALIS. 



391 



and conspicuously edged with the same ; larger coverts edged with dirty whitish. Outer webs 

 of tail feathers edged with white, purest and occupying half the web in the external one, nar- 

 rowing and less clear to the central feathers, the basal portions, especially, assuming more the 

 color of the back 



List of specimens. 



PAUUS OCCIDENTALIS, Baird. 

 Western Titmous . 



Sp Ch. — Tarsi lengthened. Tail graduated ; outer feather about .95 of an inch shorter than the middle. 



Above dark brownish ash ; head and neck above and below black, separated on the sides by white ; beneath light dirty, rusty 

 yellowish brown, scarcely whiter along the middle of body. Tail and wings not quite so much edged with whitish as in 

 P. alricapillus. 



Length, about 4.75 ; wing, 2.40 ; tail, 2.40. 



Hab. — North Pacific coast of United States. 



This species is of the same size as P. atricapillus, and resembles it in its markings ; the ashy 

 of the back is, however, washed with a darker shade of yellowish brown. The brown of the 

 under parts is so much darker as to cause the predominant color there to be a pale yellowish 

 brown, instead of brownish white. The fourth quill is longest ; the fifth and sixth a little shorter 

 than the third ; the second is about as long as the secondaries. The tail is rounded, rather 

 more so than in atricapillus, the difference in the lengths of the feathers amounting to about 

 .25 of an inch. The amount of light margining to the quills and tail feathers is much as in 

 atricapillus, but rather less, perhaps, on the tail. 



It is rather a hazardous undertaking to add another to the list of North American black- 

 capped and throated titmice ; but if we have three good species now, instead of one, then the 

 present is equally entitled to specific distinction with carolinensis and septentrionalis. In 

 external form it resembles the typical atricapillus, as to average size, length of wing and tail, 

 and general amount of white, differing in all these appreciably from septentrionalis. It is, 

 however, more different from it, in its dark colors, almost brown beneath, than any of the others 

 are among themselves, while the tarsi are even larger than in septentrionalis. 



This species seems to be the Pacific representative of the American black-capped titmice, as 

 septentrionalis belongs to the middle region. 



List of specimens. 



