844 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.xxiv. 
specimens on which it was based came probably from the vicinity of 
the Valley of Mexico, and to the race from this reoion Mr. Nelson has 
lately restricted this name/ The type of Alauda minor Giraud" is in 
the U. S. National Museum, and has been carefully examined and 
compared. That it does not belong- to the race giraudl is al>solutely 
certain, notwithstanding Mr. Henshaw's statement to the contrar}'^. 
It agrees w^ith Giraud's original description, but is altogether too 
dark as well as too rufescent for the Texas form, and seems to be 
the same as birds from Puebla and Vera Cruz. The name, however, 
is unavailable in ^ny case, being preoccupied by Alauda minw GmeWn 
(= Anthiis trimaliH)} The discovery that at least one of Giraud's 
famous "sixteen species of Texas birds" surely did not come from 
that State is exceedingly interesting and suggestive. This race has no 
other synonyms, since Alauda (jlac'ialh of Lichtenstein'' is a nomen 
nudum. 
A numlier of males from Siilazar and the valley of Toluca, lioth in 
the State of Mexico, have the cervix somewhat more pinkish than 
ol)tains in most of the specimens of a large series from Ajusco, in the 
same State; the females also, from the first-mentioned localities, appear 
to be duller or less conspicuously ochraceous, although this may be 
largjely seasonal. The birds from Tlaxcala, Puebla, and central Vera 
Cruz differ somewhat from those of the State of Mexico in being rather 
smaller, paler and more rufescent on the upper parts. They are thus 
to some extent intermediate between chrymlderiui and oaxacrn^ though 
very much nearer the former. If comparison be instituted between 
these specimens and tj^pical adia from California, however, it will be 
at once seen that they are exceedingly similar and, to sa}- the least, 
difficult to distinguish, forming another of those perplexing cases of 
forms reduplicated by apparent intergradation of two or more others. 
To call these actla., or to call them typical chrymlmma together with 
all the California birds and rename the race from the State of Mexico, 
or to give them a separate designation, would serve simply to increase 
the difficulty, so the only logical coarse is to consider them abei-rant 
examples of eliryxohjema. 
While referring to this race a breeding specimen from Silao, Guana- 
juato, it should be stated that in color and size it almost exactly matches 
examples from Tlaxcala. diti'ering thus from birds of the valley of 
Mexico, which occupy an intervening area, and was probably produced 
Iw the intergradation of true chrysolcetna with ap/o'asta, plus possibly 
some infusion of diaphora. Two August specimens in fresh plumage, 
one from Mesquitic, Jalisco, the other from Plateado, Zacatecas, 
1 Auk, XIV, Jan. 1897, p. 55. 
^Sixteen Species North Amer. Birds, 1841, p. 33. 
^'Auk, I, July, 1884, p. 260. 
*Syst. Nat, I, 1788, p. 793. 
^Preis-Verz. Mex. Vog., 1830, p. 2, No. 59. 
