200 Mearns 071 the Birds of Arizona. [July 



are represented, in the United States at large, by a single species, 

 heavily and even richly colored, in comparison with the pale dull 

 shades of the numerous species or races of the Coloradan region : 

 in both cases there are species restricted to this Basin ; in both, 

 rounded wings sliorter than the graduated tail, large strong feet, 

 and terrestrial habits are conspicuous features in comparison with 

 their respective allies. The parallel might even be pushed to the 

 length of recognizing individual species of one genus as represent- 

 atives of those of the other. Pipilo aberli is the counterpart of 

 H. crissalis and sevei'al others are almost as clearly analogous." 



Although highly characteristic of the Arizona avifauna, this 

 genus is represented over the northeastern half of the Territory 

 by a single species (yH. crissalis), and that of local distribution, 

 avoiding high altitudes, and hence absent from many large areas ; 

 but the southwestern half of Arizona, in greater pai't occupied by 

 open desert plains extending eastward from the Colorado River, 

 is inherited by all of the four species above named, occurring in 

 greater or less abundance. Another species (y'"'' Harpot-hynchus 

 ctirvirostris \yertts'^'') is attributed to Arizona by Dr. Coues in 

 the second edition of his 'Check List of North American Birds,' 

 page 6 ; but, so far as known, typical H. ctirvirostris is limited, 

 in its United States range, to the valley of the Rio Grande. 



All of the Arizona species are of comparatively late discovery, 

 the types of H. crissalis and H. lecontei, originally described in 

 1 85 1 and 1858, by Messrs. Lawrence and Henry, respectively, 

 having remained unique for years ; while H. ctirvirostris pal- 

 meri and H. <5c;/<//r^/ remained undescribed until 1873 and 1873, 

 respectively. None of the species became at all well known 

 until quite recently ; but during the past few years much has been 

 done to elucidate their life histories by Captain Bendire, Dr. 

 Palmer, Messrs. Henshaw, Brewster, Stephens, and others. 



I have embraced the present opportunity, when giving the re- 

 sults of my own study of the Arizona Thrashers, for which I have 

 enjoyed exceptionally fine opportunities when travelling in vari- 

 ous portions of the Territory during their breeding season, to 

 bring together the scattered literature, and present something 

 like a connected account of each species. 



Without dwelling upon the characteristics of the genus as a 

 whole, I will pause to notice some of the peculiarities of the spe- 

 cies under consideration. All agree in the characters of an elon- 



