BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 



429 



PSALTRIPARUS MELANOTIS LLOYDI (Sennett). 

 LLOTD'S BUSH-TIT. 



Similar to P. m. vuhis but back, etc., olive-gray instead of grayish 

 olive or hair brown, and under parts much paler, with little if any 

 buffy tinge. 



Adult male. — Pileum plain slate-gray; sides of head, including 

 loral, orbital, suborbital, malar, and auricular regions, glossy green- 

 ish black; back, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts plain deep olive-gray; wings (except lesser coverts) and tail 

 deep smoke gray or mouse gray with pale gray edgings; chin and 

 sides of upper throat black, or mostly so; rest of throat, together 

 with chest and sides of neck, white; under parts of body slightly 

 duller white, the sides and flanks more or less strongly washed with 

 grayish ecru drab, the flanks sometimes touched with vinaceous; 

 under tail-coverts, anal region, and thighs dull buffy whitish; under 

 wing-coverts and axillars white; bill black; legs and feet black (in 

 dried skins); length (skins), 97-110 (103.5); wing, 47-52.5 (49.9); tail, 

 48.5-58.5 (53.4); culmen, 6.5-7.5 (7.1); tarsus, 15-17 (16); middle toe, 

 8-8.5 (8.3).« 



Adult female. — Similar to the adult male but with black on sides 

 of head usually replaced, at least in part, by pale drab or broccoli 

 brown,* and under parts of body very pale dull buffy; length (skins), 

 93.5-107.5 (102.2); wing, 46.5-61 (49); tail, 50-57 (53.6); culmen, 

 6.5-7.5 (7); tarsus, 15-16.5 (15.6); middle toe, 7.5-8.5 (S.l).'' 



«■ Fifteen specimens. 



6If the black occupies the same area as in the adult male, it is duller and usually 

 more or less broken. As a rule, the black is present as a post-auricular patch, of 

 greater or less extent, sometimes extending anteriorly, as a narrow streak toward 

 the eye. Females of this form, as well as some young males, without any black 

 on the sides of the head are exceedingly difficult to distinguish from P. plumbeus, 

 perhaps the most certain distinctive character being the obvious, though slight, 

 difference in color between the pileum and the back, the latter being a more oliva- 

 ceous gray than the former. 



<; Fifteen specimens. 



Texan specimens compare in average measurements with those from Chihuahua 

 and Sonora as follows: 



Locality. 



Middle 



MALES. 



Five adult males from southwestern Texas 



Ten adult males from northern Chihuahua 



FEMALES. 



Five adult females from southwestern Texas 



Ten adult females from northern Chihuahua (4) and 

 Sonora (6) 



8.5 

 8.2 



8.2 

 8.1 



I am unable to percieve any difference in coloration between the two series. 



