inca AN a ee Sate A Seteet ee Heys ek Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924090260740 ALDERT K. MANN LIBRARY AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY Ov 092 060 726! int iui iA Auval ALISHSAINN TWaNHOO S== —= Nonn. Spee -Coll. Ql @3 CBS DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES F. V. HAYDEN, U. S. GEOLOGIST-IN-CHARGE MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS—No. 11 Birps or tHE CoLorapo VALLEY A REPOSITORY OF SCIENTIFIC AND POPULAR INFORMATION CONCERNING NORTH AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY BY ELLIOTT COUES TERAG, FAve yedtOdy xahac pas dyovea ’ v4 ig 1 PART FIRST Passeres to Laniidee Bibliographical Appendix Seventy Illustrations WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1878 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL U.S. GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES, Washington, D. C., October 31, 1878. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for approval and for publication, Part First of a treatise entitled “Birds of the Colorado Valley”, which I have taken great pains to render worthy of favorable consideration as a repository of scientific and popular information concerning North American ornithology. I am, Sir, &ec., Dr. F. V. HAYDEN, U. 8. Geologist, dée., de., Washington, D. O. iii PREFATORY NOTE U. S. GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES, Washington, D. C., November 1, 1878. ESULTS of Dr. Coues’s continued studies of North Ameri- can ornithology, in connection with the Survey under my charge, are herewith presented as one of the series of Miscel- laneous Publications (No. 11). Should circumstances favor the completion of the work, upon which the author is still engaged and which is already not far from finished, the remaining portion may be expected. The present treatise may be regarded as com- plementary to the “Birds of the Northwest” (Mise. Pub. No. 3). It covers much ground not gone over in the latter work, in all that relates to the technicalities of the general subject, as well as to the particular life-histories of the birds composing the remarkable avian fauna of the Colorado Basin. As originally projected for publication in a different connection, the work consisted merely of a report upon the peculiar features of bird- life in the area under consideration, with biographies of the species not treated in the “Birds of the Northwest”. But the author’s resources have proved to be so largely in excess of the requirements of such a report that the work has outgrown the limits of a single volume, and become a full exposition of our present knowledge of the subject, by the incorporation of much technical matter concerning North American ornithology at large, hitherto the private possession of the author and now first made accessible to the public. The whole subject of the bibliography of North American ornithology, and of the synonymy of North American birds, has been worked up anew from the very bottom, as a matter of original personal investigation admitting of nothing at second- hand. Not only the birds of the Colorado Valley, but also all others of North America, are thus exhaustively treated, their synonymy and bibliography being at length placed upon a satisfactory basis. In points of accuracy, completeness and thorough reliability it is believed that this side of the work Vv vil BIRDS OF THE COLORADO VALLEY will compare so favorably with what has before been done in the bibliography of any department of science as to furnish a model for the future. Since the appearance of the “Birds of the Northwest” it has been a matter of frequently expressed regret that the accounts of the birds treated in that volume did not include such descrip- tions of the species as should enable those using the work to identify specimens they might have in hand. It has been deemed advisable to supply this want in the present treatise, especially as a considerable proportion of the characteristic birds of the Colorado Valley are not so well known as are most of those inhabiting the region of the Missouri. The descrip- tions are original, in nearly every case having been drawn up by the author directly from the specimens themselves, with great regard to precision of concise statement. -All the species ascertained to occur in the Valley of the Colorado, being those which form the special subject of the work, are thus treated, the other North American birds of which the volume takes account being introduced only with their synonymy and a brief state- ment of the habitat of each. Respecting the biographies or “life-histories” of the birds, which constitute the main text of the present volume, the author’s view, that this portion of the subject should be so far divested of technicality as to meet the tastes and wants of the public rather than the scientific requirements of the schoolmen in ornithology, will doubtless meet with general and emphatic approval. Itis possible to make natural history entertaining and attractive as well as instructive, with no loss in scientific precision, but with great gain in stimulating, strengthening and confirming the wholesome influence which the study of the natural sciences may exert upon the higher grades of mental culture; nor is it a matter of ‘little moment to so shape the knowledge which results from the naturalist’s labors that its increase may be susceptible of the widest possible diffusion. The first twelve sheets of this volume (to p. 192) were printed in 1876, when other engagements obliged the author to inter- rupt the preparation of the work. The printing was resumed in 1878, and is completed at the date of this prefatory. A few impressions of the earlier sheets may have already been in pri- vate circulation, but no portion of the work is published prior to this date. The types of pp. 1-192 having been distributed without stereotyping after only 1,500 impressions had been PREFATORY NOTE vii taken, it will be necessary to reset this portion if a larger edi- tion is required; and in order to secure uniformity, the composi- tion should be, if possible, in fac simile. The illustrations of the present volume are chiefly those which formerly appeared in the same author’s “Key to North Ameri- can Birds”. According to the report rendered by the author, the present part of the work carries the subject through Passeres to Laniide. The whole consists in a systematic treatise on the families, gen- era and species represented in the Colorado Valley—that is to say, in the whole region drained by the Colorado River of the West and its tributaries, as far south as the present Mexican boundary of the United States. The watershed of this great river includes Arizona, much of New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada, a part of the State of Colorado, and some of Southern California. The faunal area thus circumscribed is nearly that of the “Great Basin”, and corresponds with the “Middle Faunal Province” of some z00-geographers, as distinguished from the “ Western” and “Eastern” Provinces respectively. The main chain of the Rocky Mountains, or great continental divide, bounds it on the east, as the Sierras Nevadas do on the west. To the north lies the Salt Lake Valley; southward the boundary is an arbitrary political one. In the last-named direction, the fauna changes insensibly by the gradual gain of a “neotropical” complexion, though many “nearctic” features are impressed upon the table-lands of Mexico. The proper fauna of that country is prefigured in the area under consideration by the various subtropical forms of bird- life which have successively been found within the border of the United States in the Valley of the Gila, as in that of the Lower Rio Grande of Texas. Both to the east and to the west the geographical boundaries already mentioned correspond quite closely with the limits of the natural faunal areas; for we miss in the Colorado Valley some characteristic forms both of the Pacific slope proper and of the Eastern United States at large. Northward the Great Basin narrows like a wedge thrust in between the converging Eastern and Western Provinces. No other portion of the United States of equal area offers such varied surface conditions and such climatic extremes. The region is hedged about by mountain ranges of immense extent and elevation, and contains many other lofty chains and peaks, while the greater part of the country is low, hot and arid. The Vili BIRDS OF THE COLORADO VALLEY highly diverse topography of the country is strongly reflected in the temperature, the rainfall, and the course of the seasons of this remarkable region, and these in turn leave their impress upon animal and vegetable life, with the result that contiguous areas of insignificant geographical extent may differ as much in their natural productions as if they stretched over many degrees of latitude. In the Colorado Basin, in fact, as appears to be the case in most portions of Mexico, the distribution and migrations of birds may be regarded as affected by altitude rather than by latitude or longitude; and we have a striking instance of the convertibility of these two factors of the general equation. The birds here find their summer and winter homes, and perform their migrations, rather according to “the lay of the land” than with reference to degrees of latitude. A portion of the Colorado Valley, in Southwestern Arizona and adjoining parts of California, has long been known as the hottest place in the United States. At Fort Yuma, on the Colorado River at the mouth of the Gila, in latitude 32° 32’, longitude 114° 36/ 9”, the mean annual rainfall does not exceed five inches. A temperature of 119° F. has been recorded, and for weeks in succession the mercury may rise above 100° daily. For several hundred miles the great river rises but little, its elevation at Fort Mojave, for instance, being only about 525 feet. South- ern and Western Arizona is a torrid, alkaline waste; in fact, a part of the “Great American Desert”; yet in the central portion of the Territory rise the magnificent San Francisco Mountains, 12,562 feet high, pine-clad, and snow-capped during a portion of the year; and at Fort Whipple, with an altitude of 5,335 feet, the general course of the seasons is not materially different from that in the Middle Atlantic States. A day’s jour- ney from the last-mentioned locality will show differences in the bird-fauna comparable, for instance, to those distinguish- ing Massachusetts from the District of Columbia. Many of the birds of Fort Yuma and Fort Whipple respectively are total strangers to each other. Such striking features as are here briefly indicated render the study of the birds of this region specially attractive, and exact information respecting their distribution and movements within the area in question is very desirable. The whole subject is elucidated in detail in the present treatise. Aside from the local perturbations resulting from topograph- ical and climatic diversity within small areas, the bird-fauna of the Colorado Valley is in a sense homogeneous and rather PREFATORY NOTE ix compact, being well marked by a large proportion of highly characteristic, if not wholly peculiar, species. The resulting aspect of the bird-fauna is far more strongly pronounced than is ordinarily found to be the case with areas of corresponding dimensions. As might be expected from aridity of such extent and to such degree as is witnessed in the Colorado Valley, the prime mark of the birds of the region is that pallor of colora- tion which is now well known to result from the combined effects of heat and dryness. It is the extreme of a condition very sen- sibly offered by the birds of the Great Plains at large. In some cases we here find that the modification of a common stock has produced forms sufficiently distinct from their respective allies to meet the requirements of “species”; while in many more instances strongly marked geographical races are developed by the same natural causes operating less intensely, less continu- ously, or upon less susceptible material. It is unnecessary in this place to cite examples, as such cases are already well known to ornithologists. It may be added, as a curious fact in the matter of the modifications here witnessed, that the tail is length- ened in many cases of birds which otherwise differ from their respective allies mainly by the bleached coloration just noticed. A. few words upon the progress of our knowledge of the birds of the region under consideration will not be out of place here. It is only within the last twenty-five years that we have acquired any considerable information respecting the ornithology of the Colorado Basin. Shortly after Nuttall and Townsend largely increased our knowledge of Western birds from localities much further north, Dr. William Gambel gave us welcome advices in various papers published by the Philadelphia Academy from 1843 to 1849; and this naturalist may be considered as a pioneer in this field. He was succeeded by Dr. 8. W. Woodhouse, who accompanied an expedition to the Zuiii and Colorado Rivers, and prepared a valuable paper published in 1853 in Sitgreaves’s Report. Mr. Cassin’s well-known “ Iustrations”, completed in 1856, contain colored figures of many interesting species, and include the timely field-notes of Col. G. A. McCall, Dr. A. L. Heermann, and other naturalists who had made personal observations in the field. A stride forward was taken when the Reports of the Pacific Railroad and Mexican Boundary appeared ; the technicalities of the subject being admirably worked out by Professor Baird in these volumes, while the same publications include the field-notes of the naturalists attached to the several x BIRDS OF THE COLORADO VALLEY Surveys, as Dr. Heermann, already mentioned, Dr. C. B. R. Ken. nerly, Mr. J. H. Clarke, Mr. Arthur Schott, and others. Dr. T. C. Henry, then of the Army, published several valuable papers on the birds of New Mexico at about this time, and Dr. J. G. Cooper gained much additional information during his some- what later residence in Arizona. Much, however, remained to be done when Dr. Coues entered Arizona in 1864, and spent nearly two years in studying the natural history of the Terri- tory. He published in 1866 the first formal list of the birds of Arizona, describing new species and adding others to the fauna of the United States; and his personal experiences, now for the first time set forth in full, afford a large basis of the biographi- cal portion of the present treatise. Lieutenant (now Captain) Charles Bendire, U. 8. A., subsequently resided for some time in Southern Arizona, where he made large collections of nests and eggs, and furnished much information respecting the breed- ing habits of the birds, which was published in part by Dr. Coues, but principally by Dr. T. M. Brewer. By far the most important contributions hitherto offered to the natural his- tory proper of the birds of New Mexico and Arizona are those recently made by Mr. H. W. Henshaw, during his connection with the Engineer Survey West of the 100th Meridian. This accomplished ornithologist has added many new species to the fauna of the United States, and has published the most complete list we possess of the birds of Arizona; while his extensive memoir in the 4to Reports of the Survey mentioned gives us much new information respecting the distribution and the habits of the birds of New Mexico and Arizona. I may also advert in the present connection to several late publications upon the birds of contiguous regions as bearing upon. the special subject. Among these may be mentioned the ‘papers on Texan birds by H. E. Dresser, H. B. Butcher, ©. A. H. McCauley, J. C. Merrill, and G. B. Sennett; on those of Colo- ‘rado by C.K. Aiken and C. H. Holden, and R. Ridgway; to Mr. Henshaw’s List of the Birds of Utah; to Dr. Cooper’s work on the ornithology of California; to Mr. J. A. Allen’s-Reconnois- sance in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah ; and especially to Mr. Ridgway’s important memoir on the Ornithology of the Survey of the 40th Parallel. It is believed that the present volume will be found to be a thorough digest of the information we possess upon the subject. F. V. HAYDEN, United States Geologist. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I.—THRUSHES Family TURDIDA....... .2 020 cee eee concen cnn ne ce ceee ceenee eee cons Genus Turdus, 7.—The Robin, 8.—Varied Thrush, 14.—Hermit Thrush, 20.—Wood Thrush, 28.—Olive-backed Thrush, 34.—Wil- son’s Thrush, 39.—Genus Myiadestes, 43.—Townsend’s Fly-catching Thrush, 44.—Genus Oroscoptes, 48.—Mountain Mockingbird, 48.— Genus Mimus, 53.—The Mockingbird, 53.—The Catbird, 56.—Genus Harporhynchus, 60.—Brown Thrasher, 61.—Curve-billed Thrasher, 64,—Arizona Thrasher, 67.—Saint Lucas Thrasher, 68.—Yuma Thrasher, 70.—Crissal Thrasher, 73. CHAPTER I.—BLUEBIRDS Family SAXTCOLID A gs 2 ciacsicjois-aivtatsioineis scietwied seein ae eciowiesinacieaie’ eisisime Genus Sialia, 76.—Wilson’s Bluebird, 77.—Western or Mexican Bluebird, 80.—Arctic or Rocky Mountain Bluebird, 82. CHAPTER III.—DIPPERS Bamily ‘CIN GLID 20) ois o.s)vie:sieraie' sisinjejuje aie cote Shs eis oye w sipehienwaleiesicieinlais Genus Cinclus, 84.—American Dipper, 89. CHAPTER IV.—OLD WORLD WARBLERS Family SYLVIIDA 2.2.2. 220s eee ee cence cece ee cow eee eee ee es teenes Genus Regulus, 92.—Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 92.—American Golden- crested Kinglet, 96.—Genus Polioptila, 101.—Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, 101.—Plumbeous Gnatcatcher, 105.—Black-capped Gnatcatcher, 106, CHAPTER V.—WREN-TITS Family CHAMHIDE ......- eae new ene seen ee cece sens cone cone tees ce ceee Genus Chamea, 108.—The Wren-tit, 108. CHAPTER VI.—TITMICE Genus Lophophanes, 112.—Tufted Titmouse, 113.—Plain Titmouse, 114.—Black-crested Titmouse, 116.—Bridled Titmouse, 117.—Genus Parus, 119.—Long-tailed Chickadee, 120.—Mountain Chickadee, 122.—Genus Psaltriparus, 123.—Least Bush-tit, 124.—Plumbeous Bush-tit, 125.—Genus Auriparus, 129.—Yellow-headed Verdin, 129. xi 76 91 108 111 xii BIRDS OF THE COLORADO VALLEY CHAPTER VII.—NUTHATCHES | Family SYTTID 2... 22. ee eee cece es cece e cece cee cece ne cn eene ceeeee 132 Genus Sitta, 133.—Slender-billed Nuthatch, 134.—Red-bellied Nut- hatch, 186.—Pygmy Nuthatch, 139. CHAPTER VIII.—CREEPERS Family CERTHIIDE...... ..ccecccece ceceee cocnce ceenee scuisceeeTest 143 Genus Certhia, 1483.—Brown Creeper, 135. CHAPTER IX.—WRENS Family TROGLODYTIDAL.. 1.022. cee ene eee ce cee cow eee cece ne coe eee 152 Genus Campylorhynchus, 154.—Cactus Wren, 156.—Genus Salpinctes, 159.—Rock Wren, 159.—Genus Catherpes, 163.—Caiion Wren, 164.— Genus Thryothorus, 167.—Carolina Wren, 168.—Genus Thryomanes, 167.—White-bellied Wren, 169.—Genus Troglodytes, 167.—Western. House Wren, 171.—Genus