154 University of California Puhlications in Zoology [Vol. 21 



only part of Lieut. Bryan 's route that is clearly labelled as such is the 

 stretch between the South Platte River in northeastern Colorado and 

 the Solomon River, Kansas, the homeward route taken by the party 

 later in the summer.* 



The type specimen of schistacea is an adult female in badly molting 

 condition, of little value for color comparisons. The subspecies is 

 evidently rare in Nebraska and in the adjacent portions of Colorado 

 and Wyoming, and it is improbable that this bird was breeding at the 

 place where it was taken. From the account in Bryan's itinerary, 

 above cited, the headwaters of Lodgepole Creek (which empties into 

 the South Platte not far west of the point of capture) would seem a 

 not unlikely breeding ground for Passerella, so it may be that this 

 bird had strayed down that stream, and then down the South Platte. 



In Baird's original description of Passerella schistacea (1858, 

 p. 490), his comments were applied to a series of specimens that 

 included two or more distinct subspecies, as now understood. As far 

 as the description itself is concerned, both the small-type paragraph 

 headed "Sp. Ch." and the general comments following, all laying 

 stress upon the great size of the bill, as compared with iliaca, apply 

 to the bird he later called megarhynchns, and not to the small-billed 

 bird for which the name schistac&a has been generally used. The 

 definite statement is made, however, that :''The essential characters 

 of the preceding diagnosis are based on a specimen (5118) from the 

 head of the Platte, and collected by Lieutenant Bryan, in 1856." It 

 was a curious slip to have made, especially by as keen an observer as 

 Baird, for it is literally impossible that a comparison of Bryan's 

 specimen from the Platte with examples of iliaca, could have inspired 

 a diagnosis of the former containing the statement: "Bill very thick; 

 the upper mandible much swollen at the base. ' ' 



It seems as though the descriptive paragraphs had been based upon 

 Fort Tejon specimens, and the comment upon the Platte specimen 

 inserted at some later time. It may, perhaps, have been put in with 

 an idea of defining the geographic range of the species. 



However that may be, and however definitely every sentence in the 

 diagnosis applies to the California bird, there is no doubt that the 

 statement above quoted fixes the type of schistacea as being the Platte 

 River specimen. In addition to this there is Baird's action in an 

 appendix to the volume containing the description of schistacea, where 



* I am indebted to Dr. T. S. Palmer, of the United States Biological Survey, 

 for putting me upon the track of the accounts from which the above statements 

 are taken. 



