Birds from Coahuila, Mexico

by Emil K. Urban

Erolia melanotos (Vieillot).—Miller (1955a:162) reported taking a Pectoral Sandpiper on September 4 "at the tank in the western hills" of the Sierra del Carmen.

[Erolia minutilla (Vieillot).—Friedmann, Griscom, and Moore (1950:99) listed the Least Sandpiper from Coahuila.]

*Recurvirostra americana Gmelin.—Specimens examined: total 2: ♂ 31433 and ♀ 31432 from 8 mi. E, 2 mi. S Americanos, May 19, 1954.

Van Hoose (1955:302) reported a small breeding colony of American Avocets 8 mi. E and 2 mi. S Americanos "on a large grassy playa traversed by rows of creosote (Larrea tridentata)." No. 31432 was taken from a nest containing four partly-incubated eggs. Van Hoose (loc. cit.) also reported that four eggs in a second nest contained well-developed, downy young.

Steganopus tricolor Vieillot.—Wilson's Phalarope occurs in Coahuila as a spring and probably fall migrant. Van Tyne and Sutton (1937:31) saw the species several times along the Río Grande. Friedmann, Griscom, and Moore (1950:102) listed Steganopus tricolor from the Río Grande along the borders of Chihuahua and Coahuila on May 10-16.

[Larus argentatus smithsonianus Coues.—Friedmann, Griscom, and Moore (1950:104) listed this subspecies of the Herring Gull from the State.]

[Larus delawarensis Ord.—Friedmann, Griscom, and Moore (1950:103) stated that the Ring-billed Gull occurs in Coahuila.]

*Columba fasciata fasciata Say.—Specimens examined: total 3: ♂ 35401 (skeleton only) from 22 mi. S and 5 mi. W Ocampo, 7000 ft., April 6, 1954; and ♂ 32035 and ♀ 32036 from 4 mi. N, 21 mi. W Cuatro Ciénegas, 6200 ft., July 2, 1952.

The Band-tailed Pigeon is locally common in Coahuila. Miller (1955a:162) remarked that the Band-tailed Pigeon "was unaccountably rare in 1953" in the Sierra del Carmen, and said that a specimen was taken on August 7 in Vivoras Canyon. Burleigh and Lowery (1942:189) wrote that "small flocks were seen each day ... on the summit of Diamante Pass, but only on one occasion was a pair noted." Dickerman saw 10 Band-tailed Pigeons 20 mi. S Ocampo, 6000 feet, on April 4, 1954. The enlarged testes (17 mm.) of No. 32035, and an egg (38 mm. long) in No. 32036 show that the species breeds in central Coahuila.

*Zenaida asiatica asiatica (Linnaeus).—Specimen examined: one, ♀ 31025 (skeleton only), from 10 mi. S and 5 mi. E Boquillas, 1500 ft., March 4, 1952.