VoL i? 1 ^ XV l Oberholser, Azotes on North American Birds. 463 



1918 J 



Saltator striatipectus peruvianus Cory. Six adults, both sexes, 

 Huancabamba, August. 



Cory's seven specimens, upon which he based this subspecies were from 

 Hda. Limon, 10 miles west of Balsas, northern Peru, and agree almost 

 perfectly with ours. Possibly ours are not quite so dark. 



NOTES ON NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 

 VI. 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



The present paper continues the writer's notes on North Ameri- 

 can birds. 1 In the following pages there are discussed six species 

 and subspecies, belonging to the families Alcedinidce, Tytonida, 

 Certhiidoe, Paridce, Mniotiltidce, and Fringillida. 



Streptoceryle alcyon caurina (Grinnell). 



The western form of Streptoceryle alcyon was originally described 

 by Dr. Joseph Grinnell, 2 from a specimen taken on Montague 

 Island, Prince William Sound, Alaska. Its geographic distribu- 

 tion has been considered to extend in western North America from 

 Alaska to western Mexico. Recently, however, its validity as a 

 race has been questioned, 3 because of the occurrence in British 

 Columbia of specimens similar to eastern birds. A good series of 

 eastern examples, however, compared with Pacific Coast birds, 

 shows that Streptoceryle alcyon caurina is a readily recognizable 

 race. That specimens occur difficult to distinguish does not of 

 course invalidate a subspecies which is based, and properly so, on 



■ For previous papers in this series, cf. 'The Auk.' XXXIV, April 1917 pp. 101-196; 

 XXXIV July, 1917, pp. 321-329; XXXIV, October, 1917, pp. 465-470; XXXV, January, 

 1918 pp.' 62-65; and XXXV, April, 1918, pp. 185-187. 



2 Univ Calif. Publ. Zool., V, No. 12, March 5, 1910, p. 38S, fig. 4. 



3 Taverner, Summary Rep. Geol. Surv. Dept. Mines Canada, for 1916 (1917,, p. 361. 



