740 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
ARIZONA JUNCO: Junco phaeonotus palli&tus Ridgway 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 5.9-6.5 inches, wing 3-3.3, tail 2.7-3, bill 
.4-.5. Female: Length (skins) 5.G-5.9 inches, wing 2.9-3, tail 2.5-2.S, bill .4-.5. 
Adults: Head and neck deep gray , throat , chest , and sides decidedly paler gray, rest of 
underparts white; lores and chin blackish; back and scapulars bright broum } outside 
tail feather with inner web mostly white, second much less white; wings marked with 
rusty or rufous; iris bright yellow , bill black above, yellowish below, legs yellowish 
brown, toes darker. 
Remarks. —The Arizona Junco is the only one of the southern type, with blackish 
bill and yellow eyes, occurring in New Mexico. 
Range. —Apparently resident in Transition Zone of mountains of eastern Arizona, 
southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico, in Coahuila, Chihuahua, and 
Sonora. 
State Records. —Though breeding for the most part in Arizona and northern 
Mexico, a few individuals of the Arizona Juncos enter southwestern New Mexico 
and breed in the Animas Mountains, where they were found common at 7,500-8,500 
feet on Animas Peak late in July, 1908 (Goldman). They were seen in the 
Big Hatchet Mountains, May 21, 1892, and on the summit of the highest peak of 
the San Luis Mountains on the United States-Mexican Boundary, July 19, 1892 
(Mearns)—W. W. Cooke. 
Additional Literature.—Willard, F. C., Condor, XI, 129-131, 1909 (nest). 
RED-BACKED JUNCO: Junco dorsalis Henry 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 5.S-6.4 inches, wing 3.2-3.4, tail 2.9-3, 
bill .4-.5. Female: Length (skins) 5.5-6.1 inches, wing 3-3.2, tail 2.7-2.9, bill .4-.5. 
Adults: Upperparts ash-gray except for bright reddish brown back ; chest and sides 
ashy white; iris brown } bill flesh-colored. 
Comparisons. —The absence of reddish brown on the wings and the color of bill 
and eyes distinguish the Red-backed from the Arizona Junco. 
Range. —Breeds in Transition and Canadian Zones of high mountains in Arizona 
and north central to southern New Mexico; winters south to southwestern Texas, 
Chihuahua, and Sonora. 
State Records. —The Red-backed Junco was described in 1858 by Henry, and 
the explicit statement is made in the original description that the type locality is 
Fort Thorn. This has been accepted without question as the actual type locality, 
but in a publication made in 1859 giving a summary of all his bird observations in 
New Mexico, Henry says of Junco dorsalis “Found only near Fort Stanton, among the 
mountains, where I should judge they nested. Never observed during winter.’’ 
The species is now known to be a common breeder near Fort Stanton, while it does 
not breed at Fort Thorn and occurs there only in migration or in winter, at which 
season Henry says he has never seen it. Rereading the original description with 
these facts in mind it is evident that the locality Fort Thorn belongs under the 
preceding species, Toxostoma dorsalis—Toxostomacrissalis, which has no type locality 
ascribed to it, and by a printer’s error was placed under Junco dorsalis. The real 
type locality of the lted-backed Junco is therefore to be considered as Fort Stanton. 
The Red-backed Junco probably breeds in most if not all of the mountains of 
New Mexico where it occurs. Those that had presumably come down from the 
mountains were common along the Red River in Colfax County, October 21, 1913 
(Kalmbach). The species breeds in the eastern part of the State up to Cloudcroft, 
9,000 feet (Green). [It nests in the south end of the Sacramentos in abundance, a 
