LEAD-COLORED BUSHTIT 455 



differ from other races of the species, if due allowance be made for 

 the difference in environment. 



PSALTRJPARUS MINIMUS PLUMBEUS (Baird) 

 LEAD-COLORED BUSHTIT 



HABITS 



This bush tit, whicji was long considered to be a distinct species, is 

 now regarded as the easternmost representative of a western species. 

 It has a wide distribution in the general region of the Rocky Mountains, 

 according to the 1931 Check-list, "from eastern Oregon and western 

 Wyoming south to northern Sonora and western Texas, and from 

 eastern California to central Colorado." Its range in California seems 

 to be a very narrow one, which Swarth (1914) defines as limited to the 

 "desert region of the southeastern portion of the State, in Mono, Inyo, 

 and northern San Bernardino counties. A discontinuous range, being 

 confined to the Upper Sonoran zone of the various desert mountain 

 chains and the east slope of the Sierra Nevada, these tracts being 

 separated by vast expanses of Lower Sonoran, uninhabited by the species." 



The lead-colored bushtit evidently intergrades with the California 

 bushtit at the western border of its range in eastern California and 

 with Lloyd's bushtit at the southeastern border of its range in western 

 Texas. Mr. Swarth (1914) treated the lead-c.olored bushtit as a full 

 species and seemed loath to regard it as a subspecies, though he dis- 

 cussed the subject quite fully and evidently felt that the three foiTns 

 are very closely related. Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) discuss 

 in considerable detail the status of certain specimens collected in the 

 Lassen Peak region, and seem to favor the subspecies theory. 



Referring to the Tobaye region of Nevada, Dr. Jean M. Linsdale 

 (1938b) reports this bushtit as "a common bird of the lower part of 

 the mountains, between 6000 and 8000 feet; noted once as high as 

 8700 feet. * * * 



'"Prominent among the kinds of plants frequented by bushtits were 

 the following: tall sage brush, pifion, mountain mahogany, birch, willow, 

 dogwood, limber pine, and aspen. The species occurred over the ridges 

 and along the streams ; the greatest number being found on the floor of 

 cafions near their mouths at the base of the mountains." 



We found the lead-colored bushtit common and well distributed in 

 all the mountain ranges of southern Arizona but entirely absent from 

 the low, arid regions of the southwestern part of the State. In the 

 Huachucas, it ranged well up toward the summits but was most abundant 

 between 4,000 and 7,000 feet in the mouths of canyons, in the foothills, 



