94 



Cory on a New Species of Rhamphocincl 



Dendroica (estiva is also a certain breeder there, as I got 

 several nests in the willow grove at Saticoy. 



Turd/is ustulatus I also consider a breeder, though I got no 

 nests in the county, as I saw them in June in willow groves about 

 Los Angeles, and they breed in abundance further north. 



On May 10. 1872, I visited the mouth of the river purposely 

 to see what birds bred there, but I found only a Mallard sitting 

 among the cat-tails iii the wettest part of the marsh, most of 

 which seemed too dry tor safet\ . as eggs on the ground would 

 have been exposed to many wild animals' depredations. (Per- 

 haps the eggs of Anas bos<~/ias were taken for those of Aythya 

 americana by Evermann.) Cattle grazed all over the marshes. 



I must remark, however, that the winter and two summers 

 partly spent by me at Saticoy were uncommonly dry, and it is 

 probable that wetter seasons may make the marshes along the 

 twentv miles of low coast line more suitable lor marsh-breeders. 

 1 could ride a horse through almost any part of them, the excep- 

 tions being some salt lagoons encrusted with the white crystals, 

 and unfit for nests, besides being almost deserted by all the birds, 

 those seen being only a few small Waders and Sparrows. As 

 the river is subject to violent floods in winter, which change its 

 channels and make new islands near the month, which becomes 

 blocked up by sandhills- in summer, from the waxes beating on 

 shore, the advantages for birds to breed there must vary much 

 in different wars. 



DESCRIPTION OF A MAN' SPECIES OF RHAMPHO- 

 CINCL US FROM ST. LUCIA. WEST INDIES.* 



BY CHARLES I'.. CORA 



Rhamphocinclus sanctae-luciae, sp. nov. 



Sp. Cu \k. — Top of the head dark brown, showing a dull rufous tinge: 

 hack and rump rufous brown; lores and helow the eye black, shading into 

 brown on the ear-coverts; throat and breast pure white: belly white: sides 

 of the body chocolate brown ; wing and tail dark brown; hill very dark, 

 nearly black; legs olive brown. 



Length, 8: wing. 3.10; tail. 3.60; tarsus. 1.15; hill. .85. 

 Habitat. St. Lucia, West Indies. 



[* An author's edition of 250 copies of this paper was published Feb. 3, 1887. — EDD.] 



