2 12 Anthony on the Genus Heleodytes. [ ^ 



Auk 



Heleodytes brunneicapillus bryanti, subsp. nov. 



Type, No. 3879, Coll. A. W. A., San Telmo, Lower California, April 

 30, 1893. 



Subsp. char. — Differing from affinis in very much heavier spotting of 

 lower parts, the black predominating, in extreme specimens, on the 

 throat and upper breast, and in its perfectly barred tail and slight 

 wash of rufous on belly and flanks; from brunneicapillus by heavier 

 spotting, especially on sides and belly, in having intermediate rectrices 

 more or less perfectly barred, and in much less rusty wash on lower parts. 



The proposed subspecies is readily distinguished from either 

 H. affinis or H. brunneicapillus by its much more heavily 

 spotted lower parts ; in other respects it is practically interme- 

 diate. In brunneicapillus the heavy band of semicircular or ovate 

 black spots that covers the breast and throat abruptly gives place 

 on the lower breast, sides and belly to a much less conspicuous 

 spotting, elliptical or linear in shape. H. affinis is not more 

 conspicuously spotted on the breast and jugulum than elsewhere, 

 and the spots are rounded or ovate on the sides and belly as well 

 as the breast. H. b. bryanti, on the other hand, while more 

 heavily spotted than either, exhibits a conspicuously darker 

 jugulum and breast, as in b rtin7ieicap ill us , with the rounded or 

 ovate spots of affinis on the sides and belly. 



As a rule bryanti exhibits a fully barred tail as in affinis; 

 occasionally, however, one or more of the intermediate feathers 

 has light spots indenting the inner web in place of reaching the 

 shaft. In the Lower California series there is but little variation 

 in the markings of the rectrices, but when southern California is 

 reached there is a confusion of markings that makes classification 

 seem at first almost hopeless. In the series before me can be 

 found birds with tails typical of brunneicapillus, i. e., with first 

 feather barred only on the inner web. Others have ail the 

 feathers barred except the two central ones, as in affinis ; and, of 

 course, there are all the intermediate changes between the two 

 extremes. A closer examination, however, shows two general 

 types with, of course, some few that are as easily referred to one 

 as the other. Birds with heavily spotted breasts, and sides with 

 large ovate spots, exhibit the well barred tails, and little, if any, 

 rufous on the flanks, while linear spots on the lower parts, which 



