Jan., 1904 I 
THE CONDOR 
19 
marked with rather large, round, or ovate spots; but this seems to be purely in- 
dividual variation, for I find specimens showing both character of markings in the 
Arizona, the desert, and the southern California series. The differences in the 
black throat patch are mainly seasonal. When the fall moult is completed the 
throat feathers, dusky at the base, then white, and with about the terminal third 
black, are slightly edged with grayish, producing, in birds shot up to about the 
end of October, a somewhat hoary effect in the otherwise black throat and upper 
breast. This is very soon lost, and by early spring much of the black has worn 
away as well, sufficiently so to expose much of the light colored portions of the 
feathers; so that in birds shot at this time the black is not nearly as “solid” in ap- 
pearance as is the case with fall birds. In two June specimens, one from San 
Fernando, California, and the other from the Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, 
abrasion has proceeded to such a point that the throat patch has entirely disap- 
peared as a distinctive marking, and the two birds are practically uniformly 
spotted over the entire lower parts; while in the two Sonora specimens ( $ ad. and 
$ im. coll. F. Stephens, Aug. 18, 1884) the plumage is so abraded as to have lost 
all distinctive markings, and the lower parts are almost unmarked. 
In the series of cactus wrens now before me I am quite unable to appreciate 
any decided pallor of coloration on the part of the desert birds as compared with 
specimens from the coast region; and it may be of interest to remark that the 
female of the two extremely pale colored birds mentioned above, and the darkest 
colored bird of the whole series, also a female, were shot on the same day, October 
18, 1901, at the same place, near San Fernando, California. 
Juveniles from all regions show great variation in markings and coloration; 
they are usually more or less spotted underneath, with some ochraceous on the 
flanks and abdomen, but one in my collection (No. 4080 ? juv. Santa Rita Moun- 
tains, Arizona, June 22, 1903) has the lower parts, from the throat to and including 
the lower tail coverts, strongly suffused with ochraceous, and, with the exception 
of some spots on the lower tail coverts, practically immaculate. 
Bryanti as originally described was considered as intermediate both in colora- 
tion and habitat, between the Lower California affiuis and the more northern briui- 
7 ieicapillus, and as such the race may have existence, though in southern Califor- 
nia its habitat must be extremely restricted. None of the birds in the series I have 
gathered from this region are referable to that race, as I have demonstrated; and it 
is also apparent that, by whatever name it be called, but one recognizable variety 
of cactus wren occupies the region from the Pacific Coast in .southern California, 
to, at least, eastern Arizona. Of the Texan form, Heleodytes briinneicapilhis couesi, 
I cannot speak with any authority, having no specimens. Ant]i 07 iyi is supposed 
to differ from both b 7 ya 7 ili and coicesi in being of paler coloration and having the 
lower parts less heavily spotted. There is assuredly no difference between desert 
birds and birds from the Pacific Coast region in these respects, and as the characters 
supposed to distinguish couesi and bryanti (“back narrowly striped with white, 
the stripes being broken up into spots; intermediate rectrices nearly all black, or 
slightly spotted with white”) certainly habitually occur in the coast birds, the in- 
ference is that the supposed three subspecies coitesi, a 7 itho 7 iyi and brya 7 iti are really 
one indistinguishable variety. Thus if true brnn 7 ieicapillus proves to be a Mexi- 
can species, as appears to be the case, the cactus wrens occuring along our 
southern border from the Rio Grande to the Pacific will probably have to be 
known as Heleodytes briui 7 ieicapillns couesi (Sharpe); though, as I said before, a 
race bryx 7 iti may exist in the habitat ascribed to it by Anthony, though most as- 
suredly not as defined by Dr. Mearns. 
I wish here to express my thanks to Messrs. F. Stephens and G. F'. Morcon for 
the loan of specimens from the Colorado Desert and various parts of Arizona, and 
to Mr. Joseph Grinnell for some additional specimens from southern California. 
