BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 129 
percentage of males, not greater, apparently, in autumn than during the 
breeding season, have the wings and tail light grayish brown, the rump and 
posterior under parts, as well as sometimes the entire upper parts also, dull 
orange-yellow, tinged with brown on the back. In such specimens the throat, 
jugulum, and breast are always black, although the sides of the neck are often 
pure olive-yellow. It is possible, of course, that this plumage is a mark of 
immaturity, but it occurs quite as frequently among breeding birds as with 
those taken in autumn, while several of the latter, which I take to be young, 
are distinguishable from others, certainly adult, only by having the feathers of 
the hind back tipped with ashy white, giving the plumage of this part a scaled 
appearance. Traces of this white tipping also occur on one or two of my 
spring specimens. Both young and old in autumn differ from spring birds in 
having the yellow of the rump and under parts deeper (gamboge rather than 
lemon) and the inner secondaries broadly and conspicuously bordered on 
their outer webs with pure white, this always extending around the tips of the 
feathers and backward a little way along the edges of the inner webs. The 
greater coverts, also, are much more broadly white-tipped than in spring. 
Mr. Ridgway describes the adult female of this species! as wholly without 
black, but all of my fifteen spring specimens from Lower California have the 
entire throat, jugulum, and breast unmixed black, of a duller shade, however, 
than in the male. Three of them also have the whole top and sides of the 
head and nape black, and the back dark slaty brown without admixture of 
olive or greenish. The others have the head above and on the sides, as well as 
the sides of the neck, more or less olivaceous, while in two or three the chin 
and sides of the throat are also mixed with grayish or olive. Several spring 
females in my collection and that of the American Museum, from Arizona and 
northwestern Mexico, as well as two autumnal females from Lower California, 
agree closely with Mr. Ridgway’s description. A third autumnal female from 
Lower California differs from these specimens only in having a cluster of black 
spots on the breast. The nine females which make up the balance of my 
autumnal series from Lower California do not differ appreciably from the 
spring birds of the same sex above described, excepting that, like the males in 
autumn, they have the white bordering the wing coverts and secondaries much 
broader and purer than in spring, and the black feathers of the head, throat, 
etc., more or less tipped with olivaceous. 
The case may be stated more briefly and generally as follows: — Eight of the 
forty-seven spring males and four of the twenty-five autumnal males have the 
under parts as well as the top of the head and the back more or less olivaceous. 
Three of the twenty-four spring females are wholly without black on the head, 
throat, and breast. Two of the thirteen autumnal females lack all traces of 
black on these parts, while a third has only a cluster of black spots on the 
breast. 
Juvenal plumage : — Both sexes closely resemble the plain olive phase of the 
adult female, from which they differ only in having the upper parts browner, 
1 Man. N. Amer. Birds, 1887, 373. 
VOL. XLI. — No. 1 9 
