2IO Anthony on the Genus Heleodytes. \ j u l 



Auk 



iy 



material difference in the quantity of markings, that the egg that 

 is first laid has the most, while the last is most free from spots. 

 With regard to their second laying when disturbed, it is 

 necessarily hard to get accurate data, and I am not at all certain 

 that they always do lay again. I do know, however, that they 

 are extremely erratic, both as to time and place, when they do 

 lay again. If you have learned to know a pair, you can tell 

 pretty well about where their first nest will be ; but their second 

 nest hardly ever, for they are very apt to go off to some 

 unexpected place in some swamp or elsewhere, where you have 

 never known of their breeding before. 1 



NOTES ON THE GENUS HELEODYTES, WITH A 

 DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SUBSPECIES. 



BY A. W. ANTHONY. 



In his catalogue of the 'Birds of Lower California' Mr. 

 Bryant makes mention of the unusually heavy markings on the 

 lower parts of all of the Heleodytcs affi?iis taken by him on the 

 overland trip from Magdalena Bay to San Quintin. It was 

 these notes on the species that suggested the investigation that 

 led to the present paper. 



During my first season in Lower California (1SS7) collections 

 were made from Ensenada — sixty miles south of San Diego — 

 to San Anderes, about Lat. 28 30', covering a distance of about 

 two hundred miles in latitude. A fair series of Cactus Wrens 

 were taken, but these, unfortunately, were stolen, together with 

 my entire season's collection. Later a series was secured from 

 about San Quintin and San Telmo — fifty miles north — but the 

 gap of about one hundred and fifty miles that intervenes between 

 Mr. Bryant's northernmost specimens and mine from San Quintin 

 remains unrepresented. However, a sufficient series of Peninsula 

 and Southern California skins has been brought together to 

 change, somewhat, the status of both the Cape species as well as 



1 The 1894 nests, found since this paper was written, have been added on the 

 accompanying map. 



