SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 
415 
huahua (Meenis 1979), may he an indication that 
Botteri's Sparrow is, at least locally, more 
widespread in northern Mexico than thought. 
Alternatively, the lack of earlier records of the 
species may indicate Botteri’s Sparrow occur¬ 
rence in northern Coahuilu is part of a range 
extension. More work in the region is needed to 
ascertain whether the Sierra de la Encantada birds 
represent an isolated population or whether they 
are part of a discontinuous, hut more widespread 
occurrence in the area. 
The dorsal coloration of birds from the Sierra de 
la Encantada is suggestive of the texana subspe¬ 
cies. which ranges from southern Texas to northern 
Veracruz. The arizonae subspecies is distributed 
from Arizona south to Durango, and presumably 
includes the central Chihuahuan population. Birds 
from northern Coahuila may as well belong to the 
arizonae group due to geographical proximity and 
subtility in plumage differences between subspe¬ 
cies. It is also possible the Siena de la Encantada 
population represents an undeseribed subspecies. 
Morphometries of our birds provided no informa¬ 
tion for assigning subspecies; male tail length was 
within the range of both the texana and the 
arizonae subspecies and male wing length was 
typical for arizonae and only slightly smaller than 
for texana (Webster 1959). We know of no known 
consistent vocal differences between subspecies 
(Webb and Bock 1996). 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
We thank Octavio Bermudez Finan and the staff of 
Rancho Hacienda Valle Colombia for providing accomoda¬ 
tions and hospitality. 
LITERATURE CITED 
Bryan, K. B. 2002. Birds of the Trans-Pecos: a field 
checklist. Natural Resources Program, Texas Parks 
and Wildlife, Austin. USA. 
Ceballos. G., A. Davidson. R. List. J. Pacheco, P. 
Manzano-Fischer, G. Santos-Barrera. and J. 
Cruzado. 2010. Rapid decline of a grassland system 
and its ecological and conservation implications. PLoS 
ONE 5:e8562. 
Garza de Leon. A., 1. Moran, F. Valdes, and R. 
Tinajero. 2007. Coahuila. Pages 98-136 in Avifaunas 
estatales de Mexico (R. Ortiz-Pulido. A. Navarro 
Siguenza. H. Gdmez de Silva, O. Rojas-Soto, and A. 
T. Peterson. Editors). Cipamex. Pachuca, Hidalgo, 
Mexico. 
Howell, S. N. G. and S. Webb. 1995. A guide to the birds 
of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford 
University Press. Oxford, United Kingdom. 
