The Mexican subspecies of Townsend's solitaire in the Animas Mountains: A first for New Mexico and the United States

摘要

Phillips (1991) recognizes 2 subspecies in Townsend's solitaire, Myadestes townsendi (Audubon), with the nominate form (type locality near Astoria, Oregon) nesting fi'om Alaska, Yukon, and Mackenzie southward to California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The other subspecies, M. t. calophonus Moore (type locality Mt. Mohinora, Chihuahua), is a presumed resident of the Sierra Madre Occidental and nearby highlands from Sonora and Chihuahua south to Zacatecas. According to Phillips (1991), the only specimen from Jalisco is notahly different from these 2 taxa and may be a variant or undescribed form. The sole United States record of M. t. calophonus is a specimen that Phillips provisionally assigned to this taxon from Dutchess Co., New York (American Museum of Natural History 707718). However, RWD recently has examined this specimen and concluded it is a soiled (probably soot-stained) example of M. t. townsendi. On the other hand, we have long suspected a nesting-season specimen from extreme southwestern New Mexico might represent M. t. calophonus, this an adult female (gonadal condition not indicated on label) taken on 30 June 1939 by A. C. Twomey at Turkey Spring, Animas Mountains, Hidalgo Co. (Carnegie Museum of Natural History 124112). Following appropriate comparisons, we now can confirm that specimen is indeed referable to 34. t. calophonus, and as such represents the first unequivocal record of this subspecies for New Mexico and the United States.