BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 119 
Sayornis nigricans (Swarns.). 
BuiAck PHOEBE. 
Sayornis nigricans Bairp, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, 301, 303 (Cape St. 
Lucas). Bexpine, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V. 1883, 542 (Cape Region). 
Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2d ser., II. 1889, 290 (Cape St. Lucas ; 
Cape Region). 
Sayornis nigricans semiatra (Vigors) has been recently resuscitated by Mr. 
Nelson? and adopted as a good subspecies in the Tenth Supplement of the 
A. O. U. Check List. It is said to inhabit the “ Pacific coast of Mexico and 
the United States from Colima to Oregon, including most of Arizona,” and to 
have the “ under tail-coverts pure white,” while true nigricans is supposed to 
be confined to Texas, New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and the interior and 
eastern parts of Mexico, and to have the corresponding feathers “ white more 
or less broadly striped with dusky.” From this it would appear that the bird 
of Lower California should be semiatra, but of my mature specimens (thirty- 
one in number) from the Cape Region, not one has the under tail coverts 
wholly immaculate, while the greater number possess conspicuous dusky 
shaft stripes on these feathers. The same thing is true in a general way of 
my examples from California, although one of the latter really does lack all 
trace of the markings just mentioned. Most of my numerous specimens 
from regions included within the habitat assigned to nigricans by Mr. Nel- 
son undeniably show rather more of this dusky than is possessed by the 
average bird from the Pacific coast, but the difference seems to me too trifling 
and inconstant to deserve anything more than passing notice. Scarcely more 
important, in my estimation, is the fact that the Black Pewees of the Cape 
Region are usually, but by no means invariably, distinguishable from those of 
all other regions represented in my collection by their slightly larger (broader 
as well as longer) bills and comparatively faded, brownish coloring. 
Mr. Belding gives this species as rare in the Cape Region. Mr. Frazar did 
not take it at La Paz, but further southward it is generally distributed and 
rather common at all seasons, ranging from San José del Cabo on the coast to 
the summit of the Sierra de la Laguna. It prefers the hilly country at the 
bases of the mountains, however, and is seldom seen far from water. Young 
on wing were met with at Triunfo in April. At Comondu Mr. Bryant found 
eggs “ March 13, and full-fledged young April 9, 1888.” 
The Black Phoebe is found from Oregon to southern Mexico on the Pacific 
slope. 
1 Auk, XVII. 1900, 124, 125. 
