Midwinter Birds at Barstow

Abstract

HE SIXTH of January, 90oi, I spent at Barstow, a Santa Fe' Railroad Station on the Mojave Desert of southeastern California. The country in this vicinity is hilly and particularly barren of vegetation. All the birds obs-'rved were along the Mojave River, at this date merely a creek, which one could clear at a jump. Along this stream are stretches of alkali grass flats, with here and there thin willow patches and scattered cottonwoods. The day was very windy, and consequently rather unfavorable for collecting. Perhaps 175 birds were seen altogether during the six hours of active observation. These consisted of the following thirteen species. I. Accipiter velox. Sharp-shinned Hawk. One individual seen among the cottonwoods. 2. Colaptes cafer collaris. Red-shafted Flicker. One individual, 3. Sayornis saya. Say Phoebe. One individual flying along the River. 4. Sturnella magna neglecta. Western Meadowlark. A single silent individual flushed from a grassy meadow by the River. 5. Carpodacus mexicanus obscurus. House Finch. The House Finches were the most abundant of the birds at Barstow. They kept for the most part close about the buildings in the manner of English Sparrows. But a few were to be found in the reed patches of the River bottom. Both these and the Gambel Sparrows had probably been in this vicinity constantly for many weeks, for they were much blackened with coal smoke. Their general appearance from a distance was thus so different from the ordinary that I at first shot several when partly obscured among the brush, thinking them some unfamiliar species. The specimens secured are uniformly and evenly blackened over the whole plumage, the resulting coloration being quite odd. In a male House Finch the parts of the plumage normally red are a deep burnt carmine color. In an adult Gambel Sparrow, the anterior parts have a dark plumbeous caste. This sootiness of plumage has been previously observed in several species taken about smokey railroad towns. (Cf. McGREGOR, Condor II, Jan. 900oo, p. i8). I am tempted to believe that the Parus gambeli thayeri (BIRTWELL, Auk XVIII, April 1go9, p. 166), described from Albuquerque, is based on just such adventitious characters.