262 Mearns, T-mo Nexv Birds from Santa Barbara Ids. rtuly 



increased in size and tinged with clay color; tips of middle rectrices and 

 greater wing-coverts distinctly ferruginous. Bill broAvnish instead of 

 plumbeous black. Feet and claws grayish instead of iet black. (No. 135, 

 female, collected by Mr. R. H. Beck, on Santa Cruz Island, California, 

 May 6, 1897. Length, 8 inches; alar expanse, 12.) 



An older female (No. 134,781, U. S. National Museum) taken by the 

 author, on San Clemente Island, August 27, 1894, was acquiring the adult 

 plumage at the date of capture. The new feathers indicate a very dark 

 coloration, though the upper tail-coverts are white as in L. I. ffambeli, and 

 its measurements are up to the average. 



'Measurements. — Average of 10 adults (4 males and 6 females): length, 

 224 mm.; alar expanse, 313 ; Aving, 95; tail, 102; chord of culmen, 16.1 ; 

 height of bill, 8.8; tarsus, 27. 8; middle toe and claw, 24. 



Cofnpariso7is. ■ — Some individuals have no trace of a hoary frontal 

 area. The slate-gray of the upper surface varies somewhat in 

 intensity, being plain slate-gray in some, and dark brownish slate 

 in others. In one or two specimens the white at the base of 

 primaries can scarcely be detected, while in others it forms a dis- 

 tinct patch. In a few individuals the scapulars and upper tail- 

 coverts are bordered with pale gray, almost whitish, and in others 

 these parts are almost uniform with the back. A few (probably 

 youngish) adults have brown vermiculations on the breast. 



This Shrike is naturally to be compared with Lanius hidoviciafius 

 gambeli Ridgway, the form common on the adjacent coast of Cali- 

 fornia, but differs in being very much darker as well as smaller. 

 It is, in fact, darker than the darkest eastern specimens of L. 

 hidoviciamis} It was next compared with Lanius robustus Baird, 

 supposed to have come from California ; but, as Mr. Ridgway has 

 stated (Auk, XIV, 323), the type of that species is wholly 



' Mr. Robert Ridgway, in a letter dated May 6, 1898, writes me as follows: 

 " The type of L. /. anthonyi is a much darker and less brownish gray above 

 than that of L. I. gatnbeli ; has the under parts more decidedly grayish laterally 

 and lacks the brownish wash so conspicuous in all typical specimens of gambeli ; 

 also has less white on wing and tail, though the latter character is quite variable. 

 The type of gambeli, furthermore, has white upper tail-coverts, as do most 

 examples of that form, as does also the young San Clemente specimen col- 

 lected by you. The latter agrees otherwise with the Santa Cruz bird. 



" One specimen of a series from Pasadena agrees in every respect with the 

 bird from .Santa Cruz Island, and therefore it seems the island bird occasionally 

 straggles to the mainland." 



