Vol. XIX 



iqo2 



] Mearns, T-vo Siihsfecirs Ne-v to A. O.U. Check-Lint. y I 



Remarks. — Under the appropriate name of kiuopteriis, the 

 Western Mockingbird was described by Vigors, from specimens 

 collected during the voyage of the ' Blossom,' which visited various 

 ports on the west coast of Mexico and California. He states that 

 none of his specimens were labelled with the exact locality. 



Professor Spencer F. Baird next recognized the peculiarities of 

 the Mockingbird of California, which he described,^ remarking : 

 " It is probably this variety that Vigors had in view when describ- 

 ing Orpheus leucopterus from the west coast of America (Zool. 

 Beechey, 1839, 18), although this has the wing 5.75 inches long, 

 instead of 4.50. Should further researches substantiate a specific 

 distinction from both \.\\q. polyglottus and Vigors's bird, the name of 

 Mimiis cafiadatiis [typographical error for caitdatiis, which name 

 appears on pages xxxxv {sic) and 987 of the same work] would 

 be very appropriate, in view of the lengthened tail." Baird's name 

 caudatus was applied to the Mockingbird of the West by numer- 

 ous writers, including Xantus, Cooper, Coues, and Ridgway, and 

 was more or less in current usage for about twenty years, after 

 which it was dropped even as a subspecific term, because of the 

 discovery that the tail-pattern could be matched on comparison of 

 eastern with western birds, and that the Mockingbird of Florida 

 possesses a longer tail than that of California. Again, in 1888, 

 Doctor J. A. Allen - gave the true characters of the Western Mock- 

 ingbird, based on specimens in the Scott collection, from Arizona, 

 where the race has acquired its maximum differentiation. 



The characters which I have given are based on an examination 

 of all the specimens in the collections of the United States National 

 Museum and the American Museum of Natural History, in New 

 York. I have also tabulated the measurements of seventy-five 

 specimens of both forms, taken by myself from fresh specimens, 

 collected in the region extending from Georgia and Florida to the 

 coasts of California and Mexico. All of the Texan specimens 

 examined were the western form, not extreme, but easily separated 

 from polyglottos by the larger amount of white on the bases of the 

 primaries, and the paler and more drab coloration. Its range, as 



lU. S. Pacific Railroad Rep., IX, Birds, 185S, p. 345. 

 -'The Auk,' Vol. V, April, 1888, p. 160. 



