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University of Calif ornia Publications in Zoology [Vol. 21 



The generally dark color of these birds extends even to the "soft 

 parts," for the feet of nearly all prepared specimens of semcuJa are 

 appreciably blackish rather than the translucent light brown seen in 

 specimens from San Diego and northward. 



In any discussion of the brown towhees of California it is neces- 

 sary first to determine the proper application of the name Fringilla 

 crissalis. This name was applied by Vigors (1839, p. 19) to a speci- 

 men from Monterey. In the American Ornithologists' Union Check- 

 list (1910, p. 281) the type locality is given as "probably San Fran- 



Fig. 1. Bills of subspecies of Pipilo fuscus; natural size. 



a. Pipilo fusms senicula, J' ad.; no. 46393, Mus. Vert. Zool.; San Jose, 

 Lat. 31°, Lower California, Mexico; September 27, 1925. 



h. Pipilo fuscus crissalis, ($ ad.; no. 27122, Mus. Vert. Zool.; Lytle Creek 

 Wash, 2 mi. NE. Grapelands, San Bernardino County, Calif.; November 6, 

 1916. 



c. Pipilo fuscus albigula, J'; no. 37433, coll. L. B. Bishop; La Paz, Lower 

 California, Mexico; October 16, 1924. 



d. Pipilo fuscus petulans, (^; no. 36439, Mus. Vert. Zool.; Palo Alto, Santa 

 Clara County, Calif.; January 26, 1901. 



cisco or Monterey"; but inasmuch as Sharpe (1888, p. 754) lists the 

 type specimen as in the collection of the British Museum, and as from 

 Monterej^, that locality may be accepted as fixed. In a previous study 

 of the group by the junior author of the present paper (Swarth, 1918, 

 pp. 117-121) the name crissalis was assumed to belong to the reddish 

 colored form peculiar to the central coast region, an assumption in 

 which he followed all previous writers on the subject. The specimens 

 then available from the general region of the type locality of crissalis 

 (Monterey) prove, however, not to have adequately represented the 



