436 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



AURIPARUS FLAVICEPS FLAVICEPS (Sondevall) 



CAPE VERDIN 



HABITS 



Many years ago Baird (1864) called attention to the principal char- 

 acters distinguishing the verdins of the southern part of Lower Cali- 

 fornia from those of Arizona and Texas, but he did not propose a new 

 name for the race. The most concise description is given by Ridgway 

 (1904), who says that it is similar to the northern race "but decidedly 

 smaller (except bill), with yellow of head averaging brighter, and the 

 forehead more frequently ( ?) tinged with orange-rufous ; young, how- 

 even, distinctly different in coloration from that of" the northern race, 

 "the upper parts being olive, strongly tinged with olive-green, and the 

 under tail-coverts (sometimes most of under parts) tinged with olive- 

 yellow." 



According to the 1931 Check-list, the Cape verdin occupies the 

 "Lower Austral Zone in the southern part of Lower California, south 

 of about lat. 30°, and in southwestern Sonora." William Brewster 

 (1902) says that Frazar found it "abundant everywhere in the Cape 

 Region except on the Sierra de la Laguna, where none were met with. 

 It was breeding at La Paz in March, at Triunfo in April, and apparently 

 at San Jose del Cabo in November, for on the third of that month Mr. 

 Frazar found two nests about half completed on which the birds were 

 busily at wdrk." These November birds were probably building winter 

 nests. 



Griflfing Bancroft (1930) writes of its haunts in central Lower Cali- 

 fornia : 



This is the most widely distributed and, I believe, the most abundant of the 

 local birds. It occurs in every association of the region under discussion, ex- 

 cepting only the littoral sand dunes. On the lava-strewn mesas, where vegetation 

 is barely able to maintain a foot-hold and where animal life seems almost im- 

 possible, isolated pairs of these fascinating little workers are to be found regularly 

 and in surprising numbers. In the irrigated river beds they seek open spots where 

 here and there a stray mesquite or a bit of cholla has been permitted to remain. 

 Brush-covered mountain slopes, plains dotted with cholla, cardon, and tree yucca, 

 dry river beds supporting dense mesquite and palo verde, and canons where the 

 palo bianco grows are equally their home sites. 



Nesting. — The same observer writes: "Fifty percent of the nests are 

 in cholla, forty percent in mesquite, and the other ten percent scattering. 

 The latter include anything from elephant trees to matilija poppies." 

 He continues: 



When nest building begins both birds work industriously. They find an ar- 

 rangement of cholla stems in which it is possible to construct a suitable circle 

 about five inches in diameter. They build one of fine weed twigs or of grass 



