I A A Mearns, Cactus Wrens of the United States. [Apr! 



Comparisons. — This race is readily distinguishable from the 

 subspecies brunneicapillus and bryaiiti by its pallid coloration and 

 mostly black tail. The black spots on the throat are much 

 smaller, and much less numerous ; those on the belly and flanks 

 are also fewer. The white striping of the upper surface is much 

 less pronounced ; and the crown lacks the rusty tinge. 



Compared with the Heleodytes hrunnekapiUus couesi of Texas/ 

 the throat has still less of the black spotting, and the general 

 pallor is even more striking, though the pattern of the tail markings 

 is quite similar, except that the upper surface of the middle 

 rectrices is much more conspicuously barred with black, owing to 

 the pale drab coloring of the interspaces, which are narrower and 

 darker than in Heleodytes brunneicapillus couesi. 



This race needs no close comparison with the subspecies 

 affinis. 



Remarks. — The Cactus Wrens collected along the lowest part 

 of the Colorado River and on the deserts east and west of it are 

 all typically of the present subspecies, which also occupies the 

 lower two-thirds of the desert slopes of the Coast Range Moun- 

 tains adjacent to the Mexican border. Slightly different phases of 

 anthonyi inhabit the Eastern Desert Tract, and the Elevated Cen- 

 tral Tract between the two desert areas on the Mexican line ; but 

 all of the Cactus Wrens of the interior region — • western Texas 

 to eastern California — are considered as belonging to the present 

 race. Those of the Elevated Central Tract are connectants be- 

 tween the subspecies ajiihonyi and couesi? 



Our forms may be distinguished by means of the following 



Key to the Cactus Wrens of the United States. 



a. Throat white, slightly spotted; under surface of body faintly ochra- 

 ceous-buff posteriorly. . . Heleodytes brufineicaptllts affinis. 



' The type, an adult female from Laredo, Texas, was collected February 28, 

 1867, by Doctor H. B. Butcher, and received by the British Museum from the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



"^Heleodytes brunneicapillus obscurus l<ie\son (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 

 Vol. XII, March 24, 1898), from the Tableland of Mexico, closely resembles 

 couesi, which latter is the most strongly colored form. 



