IIO Anthony, A New Pipilo from California. TwH 



J. W. Mailliard. These I have regarded as typical crissalis in 

 my comparisons. They may be characterized as follows : — 



No. 5672, Coll. A. W. A. Size large; a rusty wash pervading the entire 

 lower parts; above dull burnt umber, the feathers edged with gray; pileum 

 rather dull chestnut, not in striking contrast with the rest of the upper 

 parts; upper tail-coverts with rusty tips; malar and submalar region 

 huffy clay color. 



Specimens from Mendocino County are but little different ; 

 the rusty tints are to some extent replaced by gray, but the 

 measurements remain the same. A series from Butte and 

 Calaveras Counties, which Mr. L. Belding has very kindly 

 collected for me, are decidedly less rusty than typical crissalis, 

 the pileum being scarcely different from the back. It is not 

 improbable, however, that breeding birds would show more 

 rufescent crowns, as the color beneath the surface is more rusty 

 in the winter birds I have examined. The measurements 

 are practically the same as those of specimens from Marin 

 County. A single skin in my collection (No. 3737), from Kern 

 County, is different from anything I have examined, being much 

 paler than even those from the desert regions of Lower California. 

 This specimen was taken on the south fork of the Kern River, 

 where many plants characteristic of the Mojave Desert find their 

 way through Walker's Pass, bringing with them at least one 

 representative of the desert avifauna, Harporhynchus lecontei. If 

 the single skin in my possession is a fair representative of the 

 Towhee of that region, they would seem to grade toward mcso- 

 leucus at this point. The specimen differs from typical crissalis 

 in being much paler — below ashy gray, belly nearly white, 

 abdomen only with rufus, lower coverts slightly paler than 

 crissa/is ; above almost hair brown, pileum in contrast, between 

 mars and mummy brown ; malar and submalar region ashy gray. 

 Size about the same as in typical crissa/is, but larger than 

 specimens from Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego 

 Counties. 



The birds of Southern California, including a few I have 

 examined from the Colorado Desert, are much smaller than more 

 northern specimens, as well as darker, lacking the buffy wash. 



