Robert T. Moore

Habits of the White-Tailed Kite

(Elanus leucurus majusculus) the authors have condensed and combined their notes to give the salient features in one paper. Responsibility for each observation is shown by reference to numbered paragraphs (senior author responsible for paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14; junior author responsible for paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12). (1) The nest was found in southern California by Mr. James Dixon of Escondido. On April 2, 1939, his son, Ralph Dixon, the junior author and two friends, James Fassero and Gus Hanson, visited the nest and found that it contained eggs, which could not be seen clearly through the limbs by Ralph, who believed they were four in hum. bet. On April 16, Ralph again climbed the tree and reported that the eggs had hatched, and that there were three young in the nest. A special forty-foot ladder was guyed straight into the air, fifteen feet away from the nest on April 23 and a crate, formerly used for shipping a refrigerator, was placed without camouflage on top of it. On April 30, the senior author, as return courtesy for the loan of equipment, was invited to join the party. Ascending a second forty-foot ladder fastened to the main one, so that it extended obliquely toward the nest, the junior author obtained the first unobstructed view of the young and discovered that there were only two remaining. (2) At this time the young were approximately two weeks old. They were covered with a slate-blue down, the eyes were light brown, the feet pale flesh-color and the inside of the mouths unusually pink. The nest was lined with grass and a considerable amount of fur from meadow mice (Microtus californicus anctidiegi). When the junior

A New Race of Wild Turkey

For many years it has been known that Wild Turkeys inhabit the western slopes of the Sierra Madre of northwestern Mexico, but, so far as a fairly exhaustive search of records indicates, no actual specimens had been taken by a zoologist until our 1933 expedition to southeastern Sonora. In May of that year an adult male was observed by the author near Mirasol, Sonora, and on the 19th two females were secured near Barromicon, one on the Sonora side of the Sonora-Chihuahua boundary line and one on the Chihuahua side. On the next years expedition a female was collected by the author at Guayachi, Chihuahua, on the western slope of the Sierra. These birds prove to be different from Meleagris gallopavo merriami of Arizona and also from the birds of eastern Durango and the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre in Chihuahua, and are herewith described.

The Arizona Broad-Billed Hummingbird

WHEn Cynanthus latirostris propinquus was described (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 52: 57-60, April 27, 1939), I expressed the belief that the birds from southwestern United States are approximately the same size as the birds of northwestern Mexico and of the same coloration. Since that time, thanks to the courtesy of George Willett and the Los Angeles Museum, a much larger series has been examined and confirms this belief. With the specimens which I collected in Arizona several years ago, I have compared twenty adults, comprising thirteen males and. seven females, as well as several juveniles, all of them taken in southern Arizona and extreme northern Sonora, Mexico. Two males and four females from Sarie were collected only eighteen miles from the United States border, not far from Nogales, Arizona, and are identical with birds of Ft. Lowell of the Tucson region. As a matter of fact, the Arizona birds resemble almost precisely a series of eighteen males and thirteen females in the Moore and Dickey Collections, taken from representative points all over Sonora, and also with seventeen males and twenty-one females in the Moore Collection from Sinaloa. There is not the least difference in coloration, and only a very slight tendency toward larger size in the birds of northern Sonora and Arizona. As will be seen by reference to the table of measurements, even this slight increase leaves the Arizona bird closer to Cynanthus latirostris magicus (Mulsant and Verreaux) of Sinaloa. Like magicus, it has definitely whiter under tailcoverts and darker green posterior under parts, as compared with the gray abdomens, only partially suffused with lighter green of typical Cynanthus latirostris of the Valley of Mexico. Furthermore, the Arizona bird is separated from true latirostris by the range of propinquus, a blue-bellied bird darker than either, which occupies the high plateau of Guanajuato. In regard to nomenclature (loc. cit.) only the name Hylocharis magica needs to be considered. The Arizona bird should, therefore, be known as Cynanthus latirostris magicus (Mulsant and Verreaux). Its range extends from Arizona south on both sides of the Sierra Madre of northwestern Mexico, on the western side through the States of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Nayark, probably to Colima and Guerrero; on the eastern side through Chihuahua to Durango. From all these States, with the exception of Colima and Guerrero, the Moore Collection has specimens which are identical with a typical series from near the type locality at Mazatlan, Sinaloa. It is worth noting that in spite of our exceedingly large series from Sinaloa, not one spedmen

A New House Finch from Central Mexico

For some time the author has been convinced that the large House Finches of Guanajuato represent a new form, differing not only from the described forms to the east and south but also from the birds of the Central Plateau to the west, formerly known as rhodocotfus. It seemed better to hold description in abeyance until the accumulation of additional specimens from southwestern Chihuahua might determine whether the Jalisco-Durango plateau birds are closer to frontalis of New Mexico and Texas or to so-called sonoriensis of Sonora. Fourteen fresh specimens from localities in southwestern Chihuahua and ten from northeastern Sinaloa have simplified the problem. I am therefore describing below the form from Guanajuato.

Description of a New Race of Carpodacus mexicanus

In collections from Sinaloa have appeared specimens of a new race of the House Finch which I am herewith describing. For the loan of material my thanks are gratefully given to Dr. Barbour and Mr. Peters of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and to Dr. Friedmann of the Smithsonian Institution, and also to Dr. Oberholser of the Bureau of Biological Survey for the loan of the type of Ca@oducus * mexicanus souoriensis. All capitalized names of colors in this paper are taken from Ridgway’s “Color Standards and Color Nomenclature.”