THE BLACK-CAPPED GNATCATCHER 



107 



Pig 18 —c till of Black 

 capped Gnatcatcher ; d, of 

 Plumbeous Guutcatcher; 

 Dat. size. 



Culicivora mcxlcaiia, Cans, III. i. 1854, lOl, pi. 27 (not of Bp.). 

 Blach-hciuled (Jnatfatchcr, Oours, l.t. 

 Black-capped Gnatcalclicr, B. B. t,- R. l. c. 



Hah. — Texas to Soutliern and Lower California. 



Ch. SP. — Similis P. cccrulecc; sed vertice 

 nigro, potjonio externo rectricis exterioris albo- 

 limbato, apice albo. 



S : Like P. cwrulea, but the whole top of the head 

 black. White of tail reduced to a miuimnra; the 

 outer web of the outer feather being usually edged 

 with white, instead of wholly white, and the tip of 

 the inner web, with the tip of the next feather, white 

 for a very slight space; no white observed on the 

 third feather. Size of the foregoing ; tarsi rather 

 louger — about 0.70. 2 : No black on the head. 



The male of this species is immediately distinguished from that of either 

 of the two foregoing by having the whole top of the head black. The 

 female, however, presents someditticulty, being mainly distiiiguishaljle by the 

 miuinium amount of white on the tail, as above described, and the rather 

 louger tarsi, which are f of an inch instead of about f . 



THE Black capped Gaatcatcber, first described by Mr. G. IST. 

 Lawrence in 1851, was discovered at Eiiiggold Barracks, 

 Texas, by Capt. J. P. McOown, theu of the United States Army, 

 ■who subsequently changed his allegiance to a temporary con- 

 federatiou which was declared in 1881. Various observers 

 have since met with the bird in different portions of tlie South- 

 west, till its range has been ascertained to extend from Texas 

 to California, at the latitade of San Diego, and down the pen- 

 insula to Oape Saint Lucas, including a portion of Mexico. I 

 never saw it at Fort Whipple, nor does Mr. Henshaw a[)pear to 

 have met with it in his various tours in the Southwest. Lieu- 

 tenant Bendire found it resident about Tucson, and Dr. Cooper 

 states that it remains during the winter at Fort Mojave and 

 San Diego. The published records of its habits, excluding 

 some statements that do not seem very well considered, iiidi- 

 cate nothing peculiar in comparison with those of P. ccerulea; 

 while the nest and egg^, as described by Dr. Brewer, are sub- 

 stantially the same, though some " black" markings of the lat- 

 ter are mentioned. This may be a remarkable circumstance, 

 for, according to the same author (X. Am. Ool. p. 7) " markings 

 of a jet-black color, even to the extent of blotches, spots, or 

 lines, are of very rare occurrence, if not positively unknown ". 



