BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 203 
Sitta carolinensis lagunae Brewsr. 
St. Lucas NuTHATCH. 
[Sitta carolinensis] var. aculeata Cougs, Key N. Amer. Birds, 1872, 83, part. 
Sitta carolinensis, var. aculeata Cours, Check List, 1873, 11, no. 38 a, part. 
Sitta carolinensis aculeata (not of ALLEN) Rrpeway, Nom., N. Amer. Birds (Bull. 
U.S. Nat. Mus., no. 21), 1881, 14, no. 51a, part. Cougs, Check List, 2d ed., 
1882, 29, no. 58, part. Brxprine, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., VI. 1883, 347 (Vic- 
toria Mts.). A.O.U., Check List, 1886, 331, no. 727 a, part. Bryant, Proc. 
Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 316 ( Victoria Mts.). 
Sitta carolinensis lagunae BrEwstTeER, Auk, VIII. 1891, 149 (orig. deser. ; types from 
Sierra de la Laguna). Bryant, Zoe, II. 1891, 198 ( Victoria Mts.) 
S.[itta] carolinensis aculeata RipGway, Man. N. Amer. Birds, 2d ed., 1896, 559, part. 
[Sitta carolinensis] var. lagunae Duxsots, Synop. Avium, fasc. IX. 1901, 681 (Basse- 
Californie). 
Although this race has not been recognized by the A. O. U. Committee, I 
continue to regard it as a perfectly good subspecies. As I stated in connection 
with my original description it differs very constantly from aculeata of north- 
ern Mexico and the western United States in having decidedly shorter wings, 
slightly shorter tail, and much narrower, blackish, terminal markings on the 
outer tail feathers. These differences are not, perhaps, very conspicuous, but 
they seem to me to constitute better as well as obviously more readily avail- 
able diagnostic characters than the slight dissimilarities in respect to color tones 
which alone serve to distinguish certain birds that have been accepted by the 
Committee as subspecifically distinct. 
The St. Lucas Nuthatch is probably confined to the higher mountains south 
of La Paz, where it was first detected by Mr. Belding in 1883. To Mr. Frazar, 
however, is due the credit of collecting a sufficient series of specimens to bring 
out the slight but nevertheless very tangible differences which distinguish it 
from aculeata, to which. Mr. Belding very naturally referred it. Mr. Frazar 
met with it only on the Sierra de la Laguna, where, at all seasons, it is a rather 
common bird inhabiting the pine forests at high elevations. Specimens shot 
early in May were incubating. It is possible that the White-bellied Nut- 
hatches which Mr. Anthony found “rather rare but well distributed in the 
pines ’’ on San Pedro Martir+ may also belong to this form, but they are more 
likely to prove true aculeata. 
1 Zoe, IV. 1893, 246. 
