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    Birds from Coahuila, Mexico
    Birds from Coahuila, Mexico
    Birds from Coahuila, Mexico
    Ebook182 pages2 hours

    Birds from Coahuila, Mexico

    By Emil K. Urban

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
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      Birds from Coahuila, Mexico - Emil K. Urban

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Birds from Coahuila, Mexico, by Emil K. Urban

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      Title: Birds from Coahuila, Mexico

      Author: Emil K. Urban

      Release Date: July 17, 2008 [EBook #26076]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDS FROM COAHUILA, MEXICO ***

      Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      University of Kansas Publications

      Museum of Natural History

      Volume 11, No. 8, pp. 443-516

      August 1, 1959

      Birds From Coahuila, México

      BY EMIL K. URBAN

      University of Kansas

      Lawrence

      1959

      UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS

      MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

      UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS

      MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

      Institutional libraries interested in publications exchange may obtain this series by addressing the Exchange Librarian, University of Kansas Library, Lawrence, Kansas. Copies for individuals, persons working in a particular field of study, may be obtained by addressing instead the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. There is no provision for sale of this series by the University Library which meets institutional requests, or by the Museum of Natural History which meets the requests of individuals. However, when individuals request copies from the Museum, 25 cents should be included, for each separate number that is 100 pages or more in length, for the purpose of defraying the costs of wrapping and mailing.

      * An asterisk designates those numbers of which the Museum's supply (not the Library's supply) is exhausted. Numbers published to date, in this series, are as follows:

      (Continued on inside of back cover)

      University of Kansas Publications

      Museum of Natural History

      Volume 11, No. 8, pp. 443-516

      August 1, 1959

      Birds From Coahuila, México

      BY

      EMIL K. URBAN

      University of Kansas

      Lawrence

      1959

      University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History

      Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch,

      Robert W. Wilson

      Volume 11, No. 8, pp. 443-516

      Published August 1, 1959

      University of Kansas

      Lawrence, Kansas

      PRINTED IN

      THE STATE PRINTING PLANT TOPEKA, KANSAS

      1959

      Birds From Coahuila, México

      BY

      EMIL K. URBAN

      INTRODUCTION

      The following account is a summary of the present knowledge of the birds of Coahuila. Some 500 specimens from Coahuila in the Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas are the basis for this report; these are supplemented by records of birds previously listed from the State.

      In Coahuila, habitats vary from those characteristic near tree-line to those of the floors of the low deserts. Because of the variety of habitats, many kinds of birds are present in the State; at least 312 living named kinds of 249 species have been recorded. Possibly another 100 species will be reported after further studies have been made there. At least 154 of the species listed in this paper probably breed in Coahuila. The bird fauna in the State includes species characteristic of eastern North America and of western North America, species that range from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and species found only, or mostly, in México.

      I thank Professor E. Raymond Hall, Doctor Richard F. Johnston and Doctor Robert M. Mengel for their kind help, and Doctor Harrison B. Tordoff for first suggesting this study to me. Unless otherwise stated, the nomenclature in this paper is that of the A.O.U. Check-list Committee (1957). Catalogue numbers are those of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas. In so far as known to me, all birds recorded in the literature from Coahuila are listed below. In a few instances the only support for occurrence is the ascription of a given kind to Coahuila (without mention of date, catalogue number, or precise locality) by Friedmann, Griscom, and Moore (1950), and/or the A.O.U. Check-list Committee (1957); when this is so the entire entry is inclosed within brackets. In the accounts beyond, an asterisk indicates that the kind breeds in Coahuila; two asterisks indicate probable breeding in the State.

      LIST OF COLLECTORS

      Persons who have obtained specimens of birds from Coahuila for the Museum of Natural History are as follows:

      GAZETTEER OF LOCALITIES IN COAHUILA

      The following place-names were used to record the localities of Coahuilan birds now specimens in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History. Each place-name is followed by its location in degrees and minutes of latitude and longitude, respectively.

      For mountain ranges, the approximate center of the highland of each range is used as the point of reference.

      DISTRIBUTION OF THE KNOWN BREEDING BIRDS OF COAHUILA

      Topography and Climate

      Coahuila lies in the broad northern end of México, immediately east of the center of the continental mass. The mountains of Coahuila, which are part of the Rocky Mountain-Sierra Madre Oriental Axis, extend in a north-south direction and divide the lower lands into two areas, a larger one, a part of the Central Plateau, to the westward and a smaller one, a part of the Gulf Coastal Plain, to the northeastward. Most of the mountains of Coahuila do not exceed 6000 feet in elevation. A few peaks such as in the Sierra del Carmen, Sierra del Pino, Sierra de la Madera, Sierra Encarnación, and Sierra de Guadalupe, are more than 9000 feet high, and some more than 10,000 feet in elevation occur near the southeastern border of the State in the Sierra Madre Oriental. The Gulf Coastal Plain of northeastern Coahuila ranges from 700 feet to 1800 feet. The desert plains of the Mesa del Norte to the west of the Sierra Madre Oriental Axis are higher, more rugged, and more dissected than those of the Coastal Plain and are marked by scattered desert ranges, buttes, low hills, and knobs.

      Most of Coahuila is arid. Rainfall is moderate on the Coastal Plain and is low west of the central mountains. Baker (1956:128-132) and Muller (1947:35-38) give good summary discussions of the topography and climate of Coahuila, and the reader is referred to these for further details.

      Biotic Communities

      Baker (1956:132) stated that the biotic communities of Coahuila might be divided in accordance with the three physiographic areas of the State: the Gulf Coastal Plain, the mountains, and the desert plains of the Mesa del Norte. Goldman and Moore (1945:348-349) listed three biotic provinces in Coahuila: the Chihuahua-Zacatecas Biotic Province, in the western half of the State; the Tamaulipas Biotic Province, in the northeastern part of the State; and the Sierra Madre Oriental Biotic Province, in the southeastern part of the State. Merriam (1898) noted that definable portions of the Lower Sonoran Life-zone, the Upper Sonoran Life-zone, the Transition Life-zone, and the Canadian Life-zone can be distinguished in Coahuila. In my study of the distribution of the avifauna of Coahuila, I found that the three biotic provinces listed by Goldman and Moore (op. cit.) as major headings and Merriam's life-zones as supplements are the most satisfactory divisions.

      The Tamaulipas Biotic Province.—This province consists of lowland plains and a few isolated ranges of low mountains. The average rainfall is 23 inches (Baker, 1956:130), considerably more than the 10 inches falling in the western part of the State. In the northeastern section of the State, the moderate amount of rain, mesic vegetation, and close proximity to the eastern migration pathway importantly influence the types of birds found.

      In Coahuila, the Coastal Plain and the Río Grande Plain lie in the path of the northernmost trade winds; they account for the more humid eastern slopes of the mountains of the northeastern part of the State (Muller, 1947:38). Nevertheless, the northeastern section of

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