672 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
ARIZONA PYRRHULOXIA: Pyrrhuldxia sinuata sinuata (Bonaparte) 
Plate 72 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 7.4-8.4 inches, wing 3.5-3.9. Female: 
Length (skins) 6.9-7.9 inches, wing 3.5-7, tail 3.7-3.8, bill . 6 . Bill short and parrot 
like. Adult male: Body mainly grayish brown or brownish gray, with longer feathers 
of crest red , face, throat , median underparts , and under side of wings rose red; wings 
and tail largely dull red; bill yellowish in summer, horn colored in winter. Adult 
female: Similar to male but red of face and underparts wanting or only suggested; 
underparts buffy brown. Young injuvenal plumage: Like adult female but feathers 
more woolly in texture and underparts paler. 
Range. —Lower Sonoran Zone from southern Arizona and southern New 
Mexico to extreme central western Texas and south through western Mexico to 
Zacatecas and Sinaloa. 
State Records. —Southern New Mexico marks the northern limit of the range 
of the Arizona Pyrrhuloxia. Here it is common along the Rio Grande as far as 
Mesilla, where eggs were found, July 10, 1913 (Merrill). [In the fall a specimen was 
taken in Sierra County, October 28, 1916 (Kellogg)], and two were seen November 
21, 1909, at Garfield (Goldman). Early in November, 1902, two were taken at 
Tularosa (Gaut), which probably represents the extreme northeastern point of 
the range. (In the Pecos Valley it is found as far north as Lakewood (Ligon, 1916- 
1918).] 
In the winter, specimens were taken at Mesilla Park December 7,.1911, and 
January 8, 1913 (Ford). On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve several were seen, January 
17, 1915; [it was noted in December, 1916; also on the Rio Grande Bird Reserve 
(Elephant Butte), noted November 23-December 9, 1916 (Willett).]—W. W. 
Cooke. 
Nest. —In mesquitc and thorny bushes, small and compactly built of twigs, 
inner bark, or coarse grass, lined with a few rootlets or fine grass and fibers. Eggs: 
3 or 4, covered with purplish brown pin points. 
Food.— In August and September (in which months all the stomachs examined 
were collected) the animal food amounting to 28.81 per cent was made up almost 
exclusively of harmful species, among which are the most important pests of the 
cotton plant, the cotton worm and the cotton boll weevil. Caterpillars, grass¬ 
hoppers, and weevils are its favorite insects. Practically seven-tenths of the food 
consisted of weed seeds, the pernicious foxtail and burr grass amounting to 43.59 
per cent of the food. 
General Habits. —Among the tornillos and mesquites of the Rio 
Grande Valley and the lower mesa near Mesilla Park, Professor Merrill 
found the Arizona Pyrrhuloxia or Gray Grosbeak most abundant, and 
here in summer this remarkable bird with its high crest, parrot-like 
bill, and beautiful gray and rose plumage, as he says, “adds its charming 
presence markedly to the bird fauna; in winter it is an ever welcome 
relief from the universal gray; and in spring it is a veritable temptation 
to forsake the trodden paths of duty and take to the open as it perches 
on the top of a mesquite nearby and repeatedly calls queet , queet, 
queet—queet , queet , queet—quee-u, quee-u. During the season of rearing 
the young, a variety of calls are given, varying from the rattling 
cheek, cheek , cheek , when molested, to soft family notes of a liquid, 
