DENDECECA. 141 



being conspicuous by their scarlet colour. The eggs Mr. Brewster describes as peculiar, 

 having a white ground, more or less thinly but evenly covered with fine but distinct 

 spots of light reddish brown. Other eggs have much heavier markings. 



17. Dendrceca townsendi. 



Sylvia townsendi, Towns. Journ. Ac. Phil. vii. p. 191' (ex Nuttall). 



Dendrceca townsendi, Scl. P. Z. S. 1858, p. 298 ^: 1859, p. 374 ^j Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 11 * ; 



Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 185 ' ■ Baiid, Brew. & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 365 ' ; Coues, B. 



Col. Vall.i. p. 260^ 

 Sylvia melanocausta, Licht. in Mus. Berol. ^ 



Supra olivacea, interscapulio maculis celatis nigris notato, capite toto cum gula nigris, superciliis elongatis, 

 macula suboculari et stria lata cervicis utrinque flavissimis ; aUs et Cauda nigris, cinereo limbatis, illis 

 albo bifasciatis, Lao sicut in speciebus afflnibus albo notata ; subtus abdomine antico flavo, postico albo ; 

 hypoohondriis et crisso nigro striatis. (Desor. maris ex DueSas, Guatemala. Mus. nostr.) 

 2 mari simiUs, pileo et genis dorso concoloribus, bypocbondriorum striis obsoletis. (Desor. feminae ex DueSas, 

 Guatemala. Mus. nostr.) 



Hab. North America, Rocky Mountains to the Pacific from Alaska ^ southwards ^ ''. — 

 Mexico, N.W. Mexico (/. G. Bell ^), Oaxaca {Deppe, Mus. Berol.), La Parada 2, 

 Totontepec^ (Boucard); Guatemala, Duenas^, Volcan de Fuego and Coban (0. S. 

 & F. B. 0.). 



Though no mention is made of this species by Lichtenstein in his published list of 

 Deppe's Mexican collections, the specimens now in the Berlin Museum standing under 

 the manuscript name of Sylvia melanocausta were doubtless the first obtained by any 

 naturalist. A few years afterwards it was again discovered by Nuttall and Townsend 

 during their memorable journey to the Pacific in 1835. 



Within our territory it is only known as a winter visitant, the Mexican records being 

 almost confined to its occurrence in the State of Oaxaca, where Deppe discovered it and 

 where Boucard afterwards met with it. In Guatemala it is more abundant on the 

 slopes of the mountains bordering the Pacific than elsewhere, though we have specimens 

 captured at Coban in Vera Paz. In the Volcan de Fuego we found it at elevations 

 ranging from under 5000 to 10,000 and 12,000 feet, the latter altitude including the 

 pine-clad summit of the mountain. In its habits it resembles B. virens and its imme- 

 diate allies. 



Of its breeding nothing is as yet known. In the western States it has usually 

 been observed in autumn, and then migrating. Its summer quarters are probably as 

 far north as Alaska, where it was obtained by Wahlberg - ; but Dr. Coues thinks 

 that the pine-belts of the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona may shelter some 

 birds during the breeding-season ''. 



