Vol. XT 

 1S93 J 



Brewster on Some British Columbia Birds. 237 



P. a. alascensis that I do not hesitate to refer it to that form, of which, 

 however, I have no examples at hand for direct comparison. Mt. Baker 

 is in Washington. The distance in an air line from its summit to the 

 northern boundary of the United States is about twenty miles, but if, as is 

 probable, Mr. Brooks measured his "8 miles" from the base of the 

 northern spur of the mountain, the locality where his bird was shot 

 would be within the limits of British Columbia. In any case the capture 

 extends the range of P. alascensis far to the southward of any region 

 where it has been previously found. 



3. Agelaius phceniceus sonoriensis. Sonoran Red-winged Black- 

 bird.— The collection contains five Red-winged Blackbirds belonging to the 

 A. fhcenic ens group taken at Chilliwack in 1891 on the following dates: 

 Three males, January 9; a female, February 9; and a female March 25. All 

 of these have the bill quite as long and slender as in the most extreme ex- 

 amples of sonoriensis. Their close relationship with this form is further 

 shown by the generally brown coloring of the females, in both of which, 

 however, the brown of the upper parts is richer, the streaking of the 

 under parts coarser and blacker, and the brownish saffron tinge of the 

 breast and sides deeper than in my representatives of sonoriensis from 

 northwestern Mexico. Despite these differences it is perhaps wisest to call 

 the Chilliwack birds A. f. sonoriensis, at least for the present. One thing is 

 cer t a i n — they are not A. fhceniceus; in view of which fact the recent an- 

 nouncement 1 by Mr. Rhoads of the occurrence of fhceniceus in British 

 Columbia may require confirmation. 



4. Rhyncophanes mccownii. McCown's Longspur. — Mr. Brooks has 

 kindly given me the following account of his detection of this Longspur 

 in British Columbia: "My first specimen, an adult male in full plumage, 

 was shot on the 2d of June, 1SS7. At about the same time several years 

 afterwards I took two females on the very same spot. I passed this place 

 every day but saw no others, either there or elsewhere in British Colum- 

 bia." One of the females just mentioned is now before me. It is an adult 

 bird in rather worn plumage, and is labelled "Chilliwack, June 2, 1890." 

 Mr. Fannin includes this species in his list on Mr. Brooks's authority. 



5. Lanius ludovicianus gambeli. California Shrike. — A Shrike 

 taken at Chilliwack April 9, iSSS, resembles L. excubitoridcs in the clear 

 and nearly immaculate white of its under parts, but above is quite as 

 deeply colored as are dark extremes of L. I. gambeli. This combination, 

 with the possession of a bill larger than is often found in either of the 

 forms just mentioned, gives it a remarkably close superficial resemblance 

 to L. ludovicianus. As it is scarcely within the bounds of possibility, 

 however, that the last-named form can ever stray so far to the westward, 

 it seems best to refer this puzzling bird to L. I. gambeli. It is, I suppose, 

 one of the specimens mentioned in Mr. Fannin's list, under the name 

 excubitorides. 



1 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci, Phila., 1893, p. 47. 



