Culmen almost straight, the tip decurved, gonys straight. Above
blackish-brown; wings and back sparsely sprinkled with minute
white specks; _no such markings on head or neck_. Bars on tail
very broad, .12 in width on outer feathers. Wing, 2.84; tail,
2.40; culmen, .96; tarsus, .75; middle toe, .68; posterior,
.47; outer, .52; inner, .49 (52,791, Mazatlan, Mexico). _Hab._
Mexico … var. _mexicanus_.
Culmen and gonys both gently curved, the latter somewhat
concave. Above cinnamon-ashy, more reddish on rump and wings;
head and neck above with numerous dots of white; very few of
these on back and wings. Tail-bars very narrow and thread-like.
Wing, 2.48; tail, 2.12; culmen, .83; tarsus, .56; middle toe,
.52; posterior, .35; outer, .44; inner, .36 (53,425 ♂, Fort
Churchill, Nevada). _Hab._ Middle (and Pacific?) Province of
United States … var. _conspersus_.
[Illustration: _Catherpes mexicanus._]
In var. _mexicanus_ the white of throat is more abruptly defined
against the rufous of abdomen than in var. _conspersus_, in which the
transition is very gradual. The latter has the secondaries rufous with
narrow isolated bars of black; the former has them blackish,
_indented_ on lower webs with dark rufous. In _mexicanus_ the feet are
very stout, and dark brown; in _conspersus_ they are much weaker, and
deep black.
All specimens from south of the United States (including Giraud’s type
of _Certhia albifrons_) belong to the restricted _mexicanus_, while
all from the United States are of the var. _conspersus_.
Catherpes mexicanus, var. conspersus, RIDGWAY.