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On the Sierra Madre Sparrow, Xenospiza Baileyi, of Mexico

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On the Sierra Madre Sparrow, Xenospiza Baileyi, of Mexico ON THE SIERRA MADRE SPARROW, XENOSPIZA BAILEYI, OF MEXICO ROBERTW. DICKERMAN,ALLAN R. PHILLIPS, AND DWAIN W. WARNER THE SierraMadre or Bailey'sSparrow, Xenospiza baileyi, was described as a new genus and speciesfrom the high mountainsof Durango and Jaliscoless than 35 yearsago (O. Bangs,Proc. •VewEngland Zool. Cl., 12: 85-88, 1931). It has sincebeen consideredrare, and even 19 years ago, when F. A. Pitelka (Condor, 49: 199-203, 1947) describeda new subspecies,only 11 specimenswere known, of whichhe had at handonly 1 from La Cima, Distrito Federal, and 3 from westernMexico. Today the populationfrom the sacatonbunch grass areas of La Cima, in the pass betweenthe Valleyof Mexicoand Cuernavaca,is well representedby series in the collectionsof Phillips and the University of Minnesota Museum of Natural History. These seriesinclude specimens in all the plumage stagesfrom stubby-tailedjuveniles to worn adults and those having recently completedthe prebasicmolt. Other specimensare scattered through several museumsin the United States. The populationof Du- rangois now representedby additionalspecimens in the collectionof the Robert T. Moore Laboratoryof Zoology,Occidental College. With the accumulationof this material,and notesfrom severalseasons' field work by the authors,it is a propitioustime to gather togetherthe information on this restricted endemic Mexican sparrow. ACI•N'OWLEDGEM. Ei•TS We wish to expressour appreciation to the curators of the following collections for permitting us to examine materials in their care: American Museum of Natural History, New York; Denver Museum of Natural History; Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Robert T. Moore Collection, Occidental College, Los Angeles, California; and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California. Eugene Eisenmann critically read the manuscript, and the diagram of generic relationships was largely developed during Dickerman's conversations with him. TAXONOMIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL CONSIr)ERATIONS North American ornithologistshave long used the convenient terms "sharp-tailedsparrows" and "grassland-nestingsparrows" to denotespecies currently in the genera Passerculus,Ammodramus, Passerherbulus, and Ammospiza.I If thesefour generawere to be combinedthey would take the name Ammodramus. In comparisonwith these, for the sake of con- XA review of the close relationshipswithin this complex is being presentedelse- where as will also be a description of a hybrid Passerculus sandwichensisX Am- modramus savannarum. 49 The Auk, 84: 49-60. January, 1967 50 DICKER3/rAIgET.dL., Xenospiza baileyi [ Vol.Auk 84 1967Jan. ] DICKERlWANETAL., Xenospiza baileyi 51 veniencein this discussion,we use the term "brushland-nestingsparrows" for the closelyrelated speciesnow in the generaPasserella, Melospiza, Zonotrichia,and .runco.L. L. Shortand S. W. Simon(Condor 67: 438- 442, 1965) haverecently presented the evidenceof the relationshipswithin this group with the tentative suggestionthat the generabe all combined and the bear name .runco. In namingXenospiza baileft sierrae,Pitelka (op. cit.) comparedhis April specimenwith three comparablyplumaged specimens of the north- western population Xenospiza b. baileft, from Jalisco and Durango. He characterizedthe sierrae as: a number having blacker, broader spots on the breast,with a medialcluster as in Melospizamelodia; the malar streak blacker and more prominent; the streakingson the sides of the belly blacker; the sidesof the head grayer; the crown blacker with narrower brown feather margins; and the bill blacker dorsally. He thought that sierraewas composedof larger birds than was the northern population. In the presentstudy we have comparedin detail 17 specimensof sierrae, includingthe type, with 7 specimensof baileft, includingthe type. In worn specimens,we found completeoverlap in all characterscited by Pitelka. The breast spotsof somesierrae are less well developedthan in baileft (taking wear into consideration). The specimensof the latter form ex- aminedin detail have more or lesswell developedconcentrations of breast spots,whereas three of the sierraehave no central concentrationof black. The malar stripeson at least three sierraeare lesswell developedthan in baileft. Dorsally,sierrae averages slightly darker russetbrown, less richly colored,with slightly moreextensive central black areasof the back feathers; there is, however,much overlap. The russetbrown of the interscapular area of the type of sierraeis actually slightly paler than it is in the type of baileft. The crownsand sidesof the headsare not appreciablydifferent in the worn series. There are no differences in the color of the bills in dried specimens,nor are there significantsize differences (Table 1). Specimensof Xenospiza are grossly reminiscentof some forms of Melospiza,and Pitelka (op. cit.) wrote that a surveyof somegeneric char- actersamong the sparrowswhich had been linked with Xenospiza in the literature causedhim to doubt that Xenospizashould be segregatedas a distinct genus. He thought that is was closelyrelated to Melospiza and that it waspossibly a memberof that genus.However, Pitelka usedchar- actersof adult externalmorphology, such as wing and bill size and pro- portionsand extent of ventral streaking,which are notoriouslyvariable even intraspecificallyamong certain North Americansparrows. We think that the followingdata on the nest,eggs, juvenal and freshbasic (autumn) plumages,song, and behaviorprovide a more reliable basisfor evaluating the systematicrelationships of this elusivesparrow. 52 DICKERI•,IANET,4L., Xenospiza baileyi [ Vol.Auk 84 Figure 1. N•ting habitat of Xenos•za b•Iey•, n•r La Cima, Mexico, D. F., 25 July 1•57. 196•Jan. ] DICKERMANEr -•L., Xenospiza baileyi 53 Figure 2. Nest and young of Xenospiza baileyi, near La Cima, Mexico, D. F., 25 July 1957. 54 DICKEIC3,iAI•ETAL., Xenospiza baileyi [ Vol.Auk 84 I-IABITAT,NEST, AND EGGS The habitat (Figure 1) of Xenospigais a primaryassociation of medium and tall bunchgrasses, Epicampes macrura, Festuca amplisima, Stipa icku, and Muklenbergiaa]finis, interspersedwith park-like standsof Pinus montegu•naeon the ridgesand knolls. Bushesare absentin the grassland areas. In the periodsince 1954, when Phillips and Warner first collected in the La Cima area, a largeportion of the tillable area of this habitat has beenplowed and destroyedas nestingcover. Approximately25 to 35 per cent of the habitat visitedby the authorshas been destroyedin this time span. The fields are usedas feedingareas by the birds to a varying degree during the year. The gizzardof one adult taken 20 Novembercontained a fine gravel, small Coleopteraof the family Tenebrionidae,and the re- mainsof a smallspider. Our knowledgeof the nestof Xenospizabailyei dates from 12 July 1954, whenWarner discovered an adult at a thick-walled,unlined cup nest, near, but not on, the groundbetween elumps of bunchgrasses. On 25 July 1957, Warner and Dickermanobserved adults feedingyoung severaldays old in a nest in a similar location(Figure 2). This nest was later collected. On 15 September1961, Phillipsand Dickermanfound an abandonednest Figure 3. Two nestsof Xenospizabaileyi, collected at La Cima, Mexico, D. F., 31 July 1962. The nest on the right was abandoned. 1967Jan. ] Dxc•c•a•^•ET AL., Xenospiza baileyi 55 containingone punctured egg, in the middle of a clump of bunch grass about a foot above the ground level, and on 31 July 1962 they collected an adult femalewith her nest and three slightly incubatedeggs. This nest was located in a clump of low grassesclose to the ground betweenlarger bunch grasses.In the edge of a clump of bunch grasswithin six feet of this active nest,Phillips found anothernest, abandoned,of the species. The outer shells of the four nests which were collected are constructed of moderatelycoarse grass with a few forbs (Figure 3). The nestsare lined with fine grassand grassrootlets, and small amountsof horsehair. When fresh, these nests measured: cup diameter, 55 to 70 mm; cup depth,42 to 48; outsidediameter, 100 to 115; outsidedepth, 85 to 95. The foureggs measured 19.3 X 14.2, 20.0 X 14.5,20.1 • 14.6,and 20.6 X 14.5 mm, the first three being in the same nest. The three slightlyincubated eggs are pale greenishblue in color,be- tween,but palerthan Pale Nile Blueand Etain Blueof R. Ridgway(Color standardsand colornomenclature, Washington, D.C., 1912); the fourth eggfrom the abandonednest is muchfaded. The eggshave fine spotsand flecks,burnt umberto blackishin color,in a wreatharound the larger end with occasionalspots scattered over the entire sh'ell. The eggsof Xenospizaresemble those of all the North Americansharp-tailed, grass- land nestingsparrows in havingdark, nearly black, spotting,in contrast to the reddishspotting of the eggsof all speciesof the brushlandnesting sparrowsin whichthe eggsare spotted.However, the eggsof noneof the other grasslandsparrows have a blue-greenground color, whereas this is occasionallyfound in the brushland-nestinggroup. JUVENALPLUMAGE Juvenilesof the specieswere first collectedby Warner and Phillips in June, 1954. We now have 10 specimensin juvenal plumage. Stubby-tailed youngwere taken 13 Juneand 4 August. Young taken 3 Septemberranged from birds with fresh, little-worn juvenal plumage to others well into the first prebasicmolt with their interscapularareas largely in the first basic plumage. The juvenal plumage, like the basic plumage, is, upon grossexamination, similar to the correspondingplumages of Melospiza. However, detailed examinationreveals
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