Descriptions of New Species of Birds. 169 



on the outer margin, tip not white ; under surface pale cine- 

 reous white ; bill black ; legs dusky. 



The female differs from the male only in being without the 

 black on the crown. 



Length, 4* inches; wing, 11 in.; tail, 21 in. ; tarsus, i in. 



Habitat. — Texas, California. 



Since my introduction of this bird into our Fauna as C. atri- 

 capilla, Sw., I have ascertained it to be a different species. 

 The two resemble each other in markings and coloration, but 

 C. atricapilla (the proper name of which is " leucogastra," Wied) 

 is a larger bird, measuring five inches and having the under 

 plumage more purely white; that color extends over both 

 webs of the three outer tail feathers, except at the base, where 

 they are black, whereas in the present species it is confined to 

 the outer webs and tips of the first and second feathers, with a 

 mere margin of white on the third. 



Excellent figures of this species are given by Mr. Cassin in 

 his Illustrations of the Birds of California and Texas. He con- 

 siders it to be the C. mexicana, Bonap. Consp. Avium, p. 316. 

 The specimen so named by Prince Bonaparte was a female ; 

 the description given by him was very concise, and I do not 

 regard it as applying well to this species. Mr. P. L. Sclater, 

 who examined the original specimen in the Berlin Museum, 

 views it as the female of C. cerulea. See his article, " On the 

 Genus Culicivora of Swainson," in the Proceedings of the Zool. 

 Soc. 1855, p. 11 ; he therein proposes to change the generic 

 name of this group to Polioptila. 



For a year or more past, I have considered this species to be 

 different from all others, and appropriated for it the specific 

 name of " atriceps," but at the suggestion of Mr. Sclater (who 

 thought it too much like the one under which it was first 

 noticed), I adopted the one now applied to it. 



