TEXAS PYRRHULOXIA 23 



the Texas pyrrhuloxia, includes all these bu-ds in the Lower Austral 

 Zone of southeastern New Mexico southeastward across Texas and 

 south through Mexico to Puebla and Zacatecas. The fulvous- toned 

 western bird that is smaller in size and with a virtual absence of black 

 intermixture in the red of the face is given a new subspecific name, 

 Pyrrhuloxia sinuata fulvescens van Rossem. This race is distributed 

 in south-central Arizona from the vicinity of Tucson, south through 

 the Lower Sonoran and Arid Tropical Zones of Sonora, Sinaloa, 

 western Durango, and Nayarit of Mexico. The two races, according 

 to van Rossem, occupy ranges that are apparently completely isolated 

 one from the other, but distribution is practically continuous within 

 the range of each race. 



The common name of the form sinuata, Texas pyrrhuloxia, is very 

 appropriate, for the stronghold of this subspecies in the United States 

 is the State of Texas. It is especially abundant along the Rio Grande 

 River, as well as in southwestern Texas. According to Austin P. 

 Smith (1910) the Texas pyrrhuloxia is very abundant on the coast 

 east of Brownsville, Tex., where as many as 50 of these birds may 

 be observed in a morning walk along the Gulf. On Oct. 28, 1909, 

 after a severe northern storm, the autumn migration reached a 

 maximum, when immense flocks of pyrrhuloxias were seen. The 

 Texas pyrrhuloxia is a shyer bird than the gray-tailed cardinal, 

 though more communistic, going about in small flocks at least during 

 the winter months. The males are more suspicious, and there seem to 

 be remarkably fewer of them than of the duller-colored females. 

 Allan Brooks (1933) reported that at Brownsville, Tex., diu-ing the 

 winter of 1927-28 there was a very small proportion of adult males, 

 and he estimated that there were six dull colored to every pink one. 

 The birds are diJEficult to follow when distm-bed because of flights 

 of considerable distance taken at short intervals. Though often 

 found feeding on the ground, they are much less terrestrial in habit 

 than the cardinal. Mesquite beans form a favorite food during a 

 portion of the winter. In Brooks County, Tex., about 125 miles 

 northwest of Brownsville, Smith (1913) states that the pyrrhuloxia 

 is a common resident, largely replacing the gray-tailed cardinal. 

 With the advent of the nesting season the Texas pyrrhuloxia loses 

 much of its shyness and resorts to the neighborhood of human habita- 

 tion, where along with the western mockingbird and the curve-billed 

 thrasher its song is a most strildng feature of the advent of spring. 



Nesting. — Van Tyne and Sutton (1937) found the Texas pyrrhuloxia 

 in various parts of Brewster County, southwestern Texas, especially 

 where mesquite thickets grew. A nest containing three eggs was 

 found May 21, 1934, in an open thorny bush about 3 miles northeast 

 of Burnham Ranch, and two young recently out of the nest were 



