BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 153 
the crown is but slightly more rufescent than that of the back. In others it is 
nearly as much so as in spring. As a rule, the coloring of the upper parts is 
clearer and more olivaceous in autumnal than in spring specimens. 
Individual variations : —The most marked individual variation is in respect 
to the number and size of the black spots on the jugulum. These are some- 
times numerous, large, and conspicuous, sometimes almost wholly wanting. 
As arule, they form a fairly well-defined border about the buffy space which 
they enclose. Several birds have the throat as well as the jugulum spotted 
finely but thickly over its entire extent. As Mr. Ridgway has remarked, the 
buffy of the throat is not always palest posteriorly, being sometimes uniform 
throughout. Most of my specimens have the outer tail feathers narrowly 
tipped with rusty, but in a few these feathers are perfectly plain. The rufes- 
cent color of the crown is a constant character in spring birds. 
The collection contains a partial albino (No. 16,977) taken at San José del 
Rancho on July 6. 
This Towhee, which was discovered at Cape St. Lucas by Mr. Xantus, is 
confined to Lower California. In the Cape Region it was “not often seen at 
any locality” by Mr. Belding during his visit of 1881-82, and it receives no 
mention whatever in the paper relating to his explorations of the following 
year. Mr. Frazar, however, collected over one hundred specimens, and notes 
the bird as “common about. La Paz up to the middle of March, after which it 
entirely disappeared; exceedingly abundant at Triunfo in April, but only 
common in June, and less numerous still in December; rare on the top of the 
Sierra de la Laguna in May and early June ; and not common at San José del 
Rancho in December.” At San José del Cabo a specimen taken on October 29 
was the only one seen. These facts indicate that the birds move about a good 
deal at different seasons, and that many which winter in the Cape Region 
breed further to the northward. 
Mr. Bryant says that he has found albigula “as far north as lat. 30°.” Since 
this statement was published, however, Mr. Anthony has described P. f. senicula 
which, he states, is intermediate in coloring, as well as in distribution, between 
crissalis and albigula, and to which he apparently refers all the birds that he 
has seen from the upper parts of the Peninsula “as far south as 29° at least,” 
adding ‘‘ it is to be regretted that there are no specimens available from the 
country between San Fernando and Cape St. Lucas.””? It should be noted in 
this connection that San Fernando is in about latitude 29° 30’ north,? and 
hence very near the point to which Mr. Bryant claims that the northern 
range of albigula extends. This evidence leaves us in doubt as to whether or 
not the forms albigula and senicula meet during the breeding season in the 
central portions of Lower California. We are also ignorant as to whether or 
not they intergrade. Mr. Ridgway treats albigula as a full species in his 
Birds of North and Middle America, but in view of the uncertainties just 
discussed, I prefer to include it here as a subspecies of P. fuscus. 
1 Auk, XII. 1895, 109-112. 2 Anthony, Loc. cit., 134. 
