BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 173 
Mr. Ridgway in the Manual? restricts the distribution of LZ. 1. gam- 
belt to “California, especially coast district,” at the same time including 
Lower California in the habitat of excubitorides, but the majority of the 
Shrikes collected by Mr. Frazar are certainly gambelt. They are quite as 
dark both above and beneath as any of my California examples, and, like the 
latter, are very distinctly “ undulated on the breast with grayish.” The series 
contains several specimens, however, which are variously intermediate between 
the two forms just mentioned, and one bird (male, No. 15,433, Triunfo, De- 
cember 14, 1883), which has the gray of the upper parts nearly as pure and 
light, and the white of the lower parts almost as clear, as in the most extreme 
representatives of excubitorides. To this form it must be referred, despite 
the fact that it shows a few faint transverse lines on the breast and sides, — 
a feature by no means uncommon in autumnal specimens of excubitorides. 
Two birds (Nos. 86,256 ¢, and 86,257 9) in the National Museum Collec- 
tion, both taken at La Paz, on December 15, 1881, by Mr. Belding, are also 
referable to excubitorides, although neither is typical of that form. A third ex- 
ample (No. 26,438) without date, obtained by Xantus at Todos Santos, is in 
excessively worn plumage and looks like a breeding bird. The feathers are so 
ragged and faded that their original coloring can only be guessed at. This 
specimen is remarkable in respect to its bill, which in length exceeds that of 
any representative of the ludovicianus group which I have examined, while its 
depth is also exceptional, as will be seen by the following measurements : — 
Length of culmen from base, .97 ; from feathers, .73 ; from nostril, .55 ; depth 
of bill at nostril, .38. 
This is the common and characteristic Shrike of the Cape Region, where, 
however, according to Mr. Frazar, it does not breed, all the birds which he met 
with being observed in autumn, winter, or early spring. Their southward 
migration evidently begins at a rather early date, for he noted a specimen at 
San José del Cabo on August 31, and a “marked increase” in numbers by 
September 10. They were rather rare at Triunfo in December, but very 
common about La Paz in January and February. Mr. Bryant ‘“‘found on 
Cerros, Guadalupe, and Santa Margarita Islands, and in several places on 
the peninsula, birds which have been referred to this race. Some Mexican 
children at Juncal had six young in a cage, supposing they were mocking- 
birds.” The last statement establishes the fact that some form of Lanius 
breeds at Juncal, which is near the Pacific coast of the Peninsula opposite Mag- 
dalena Island, and hence not far to the northward of the Cape Region, but 
whether or not Mr. Bryant was correct in referring the young which he saw 
to gambeli is perhaps open to question. He states that Mr. Anthony has met 
with the latter race “along the entire northwestern coast region” of Lower 
California. 
1 Man. N. Amer. Birds, 2d ed., 1896, 467. 
