186 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



differ materially from those of the species elsewhere. Mr. Simmons 

 (1925) says that it "sings throughout the year, winter as well as sum- 

 mer." The song reminds him of the song of the western lark spar- 

 row, in its buzzing quality. Dr. Friedmann (1929) reports that Roy 

 W. Quillen, of San Antonio, told him that he had found eggs of the 

 eastern cowbird in a number of nests of this wren, and that, near 

 Brownsville, Dr. A. H. Cordier found a nest "containing three eggs 

 of the Red-Eyed Cowbird and one of the Wren's. The female Wren 

 was sitting on the eggs. The next day all three eggs hatched and 

 two days later the nest and young were destroyed by a skunk." 



THRYOMANES BEWICKI EREMOPHILUS Oberholser 



BAIRD'S WREN 



Plate 35 



HABITS 



This is the desert wren of the Southwestern States and parts of 

 Mexico, ranging from Colorado, southern Utah, southern Nevada, 

 and southeastern California southward, through Arizona, New 

 Mexico, and extreme western Texas, to Coahuila, Durango, and Za- 

 catecas. 



Ridgway ( 1904) describes this race as "similar to T. h. cryptus^ but 

 decidedly grayer above (hair brown, approaching broccoli brown in 

 some winter specimens) ; upper tail-coverts and middle rectrices 

 clearer gray; under parts still whiter, the sides more faintly tinged 

 with brownish gray, the under tail-coverts more purely white and 

 narrowly barred with black; wing and tail slightly longer, bill de- 

 cidedly longer, midle toe shorter." 



Referring to Moffat County in northwestern Colorado, Russell W. 

 Hendee (1929) writes: "While frequently reported from the juniper 

 and pinyon region of southern Colorado, the Baird Wren has seldom 

 been recorded from the northern part of the State. However, we found 

 this species among the commonest of the breeding birds of the junipers 

 near the Sand-wash [a dry valley]. A few were seen among the trees 

 on the ridges near the river, but the birds were much more numerous 

 in the more arid region to the westward." 



In Arizona we found Baird's wren in the Huachuca and Catalina 

 Mountains, in the lower portions of the canyons up to 6,000 feet, 

 chiefly in the live-oak associations near the mouths of the canyons and 

 on the low foothills. It was common, also, in the mesquite forest, in 

 the valley of the Santa Cruz River, where there were many large 

 trees and plenty of underbrush. In New Mexico and Texas its dis- 

 tribution seems to be about the same, mainly between 4,000 and 6,000 

 feet in the mountains, rarely up to 7,000 feet. 



