BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 159 
All my males of this species from the Cape Region have tawny postocular 
stripes and more or less well-defined, median crown or occipital stripes or 
spots of the same color. It has been asserted that these markings are peculiar 
to the bird of Lower California and the Pacific slope of the United States and 
British America (for which the name capitalis was proposed by Baird), but, as 
Mr. Ridgway has recently indicated,! they are not always present in specimens 
from the regions just mentioned, nor invariably absent in those from the inte- 
rior of North America and Mexico. Striking, and to my mind conclusive, 
proof of their fallibility as distinguishing characters is afforded by two breeding 
males taken at Pinos Altos, Chihuahua, Mexico, on June 5 and 8, respectively. 
One of these has the black of the head perfectly uniform save behind the eyes, 
where there are a few inconspicuous spots of tawny; in the other there is a 
well-marked light postocular stripe, and a broad conspicuous median patch of 
tawny reaching from about the center of the crown to the vertex. In other 
words, the former specimen is nearly typical of melanocephala, the latter about 
an average example of capzitalis. 
Mr. Frazar notes the Black-headed Grosbeak as ‘‘ resident during the entire 
year” in the Cape Region, but his collection contains no specimen taken later 
in spring than May 4, nor earlier in summer than July 22. He found the 
species at La Paz, where it was rare in February, more numerous in March; 
about Santiago, where it was common in late August ; at San José del Rancho, 
where it was frequently seen in December; and on the Sierra de la Laguna, 
where a single specimen was taken on May 4th. 
Mr. Bryant says that “it is not common in the northwest, according to 
Messrs. Belding and Anthony. The former found it breeding at Valle Trini- 
dad, and saw a single specimen on Cerros Island, and the latter at San Rafael. 
I obtained a single pair at Comondu April 22, 1888.” 
This Grosbeak breeds in the Sierra Madre Mountains as far south as Chi- 
huahna, and I have spring specimens from Alamos, in western Mexico. It is 
acommon summer resident of most parts of California and ranges northward 
into British Columbia. 
Guiraca caerulea lazula (Lesson). 
WESTERN BLUE GROSBEAE.- 
Guiraca caerulea (not Luzula caerulea LinnaEvs) Bexpine, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 
V. 1883, 546 (San José del Cabo). 
Guiraca caerulea eurhyncha Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 305 
(San José del Cabo). 
Mr. Frazar’s specimens, all but one of which are either females or young 
males in the brown plumage, agree closely with birds in my collection from 
western Mexico and various localities near the southern border of the western 
United States. 
1 Birds N. and Midd. Amer., pt. I. 1901, 619, footnote. 
