Part 7

Obs. A plainly-colored species abundant in California, easily recognized by the uniform cinereous color of its plumage.

4. Lophophanes Wollweberi. Bonaparte, Comptes rendus, Acad. Paris, xxxi. p. 478. (Sept. 1850.) The Texan Chickadee.

Parus annexus. Cassin, Proc. Acad. Philada. V. p. 103. (Oct. 1850.)

Lophophanes galeatus. Cabanis Cat. Heine’s coll. p. 90. (1851.)

Length (of skin) about 5 inches. Anterior feathers of crest, cinereous, succeeding and most elongated, black, others margined with white, short occipital feathers black. Throat black, line commencing behind the eye, thence curving and uniting with the space of the same color on the throat, black. Line above the eye running into the crest and around on the neck, white. Entire plumage above cinereous, tinged with olive, below ashy white, bill and feet dark.

Hab. Texas. Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada.

Obs. This species considerably resembles Lophophanes cristatus, (Linn.) a common European bird. I have no doubt that the names given above are synonymous; that applied by us being about one month later than the publication of the description by Bonaparte as cited.

III. GENUS PSALTRIA. Temminck. Pl. Col. III.

Bill very short, thick, upper mandible curved, entire, nearly of the same thickness as the lower, nostrils basal, concealed by projecting feathers, wings rather short, first quill spurious, fourth and fifth longest and nearly equal, tail long and slightly wedge-shaped. Tarsi long and slender, feet rather strong, claws curved and acute, that on the posterior toe strongest. Not crested, colors of all known species principally cinereous and white.

This genus was established by the celebrated naturalist Temminck, of Leyden, (in Planches Coloriees, vol. iii.) with a little bird as its type named by him Psaltria exilis, which inhabits Java. The bird discovered by Dr. Townsend in Oregon, and now well known to American Ornithologists as Parus minimus, Townsend, not only belongs to this genus, but only materially differs in size from Psaltria exilis. Temm. Its colors and general appearance much resemble it.

The American species are:

1. Psaltria minima. (Townsend) Townsend’s Chickadee. Parus minimus. Townsend, Jour. Acad. Philada. vii. p. 199. (1837.)

Length (of skin) about 4 inches. Head above deep cinereous, inclining to purplish brown, body above cinereous, with a tinge of olive. Throat and breast whitish, abdomen and flanks cinereous, tinged with purplish brown, bill and feet black. Female rather smaller.

Hab. Oregon and California. Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada.

Obs. As frequently turns out to be the case with birds to which such names as minor and minimus are applied, this little bird is considerably larger than its near relative, P. exilis, Temm. which otherwise it much resembles. It is now frequently brought in collections from California.

2. Psaltria melanotis. (Sanbach.) The black-eared Chickadee. Parus melanotis. Sandb. Proc. Brit. Ass. for Adv. Sci. vi. p. 99. (1837.) “Parus melanotis. Sandb.” Hartlaub, Rev. Zool. 1844, p. 216. Psaltriparus personatus. Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Acad. Paris, xxxi. p. 478. (Sept. 1850.)

Length (of skin) about 4 inches. Male, broad stripes on each side of the head under the eye, and uniting on the occiput, deep black with a green metallic lustre. Head above pale cinereous, body above cinereous brown, throat and neck white, below ashy white, with a purplish tinge, bill and legs dark. Female, with the ears brown.

Hab. Texas and Mexico. Spec. in Mus. Acad. Philada.

Obs. This pretty little bird has the bill longer and more compressed than either the preceding species, or Psaltria exilis, Temm. It is, however, we think, a true Psaltria, in which respect we coincide with Prof. Westerman, who gives a description and excellent figure of it in Contributions to Zoology, (Bijdragen tot de Dierkunden,) Amsterdam, 1851.

A few other names have been given to American species of the old genus Parus by the earlier authors, all of which are undoubtedly synonymes for those of species previously described, and which we have enumerated. We have in all cases given the authority for the first description and its date.

Chamæa fasciata. (Gambel) a bird of California—though described originally, but as Dr. Gambel expressly states provisionally only, as a Parus, we regard as properly belonging to the family of Wrens (Troglodytidæ.)

CYRTONYX MASSENA.—(Lesson.) The Massena Partridge. PLATE IV.—Male and Female.

This singularly, we had almost said, fantastically colored, though very handsome Partridge, is an inhabitant of Texas and Mexico. No other species presents such a remarkable arrangement of colors, and the black lines in the face of the male bird, as the eminent English Ornithologist, Mr. Gould, very appropriately observes, “forcibly remind one of the painted face of the clown in a pantomime.”

It has, until recently, been an exceedingly rare and highly prized bird in collections, a few specimens only having reached Europe or the cities on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Those have received names, and have been described by various European authors, as will appear from the synonymes included in the present article; but neither of them have published any information relative to the habits or history of this curious bird, nor have indicated the district of Mexico from which it had been received. It has been known only as a museum species.

Since the commencement of the military operations of the United States in Texas, New Mexico and California, and the subsequent incorporation of those countries into this great Confederacy, their natural history has attracted a large share of the attention of naturalists and students at home, and also of many highly accomplished officers of the army. In fact, to the latter gentlemen is to be awarded the high merit of having contributed, notwithstanding the engrossing and deeply responsible character of their professional duties, a large portion of all that is known relative to the zoology of those vast, and especially in a scientific point of view, very interesting regions.

A valuable notice of the Massena Partridge is given by our highly esteemed friend, Col. McCall, in his “Remarks on the habits of birds met with in Western Texas, between San Antonio and the Rio Grande, and in New Mexico, with descriptions of several species believed to have been hitherto undescribed,” published in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, V. p. 213, (June, 1851,) which we have taken the liberty of transferring to our pages.

“This species was not seen before crossing the San Pedro, but it was not long until it made its appearance in the waste and rocky region into which we then entered. And from that time until we reached the Rio Pecos, a distance of 140 miles, (westwardly by the route travelled,) it was frequently seen, though I should not say it was very common. This region is a desert of great length from north to south, our trail crossing it at nearly right angles. The general face of the country is level, and consists of either a crumbling argillaceous limestone, or a coarse grey sand, producing nothing but a sparse growth of sand plants. Water is found only at long intervals, and except at those points there is little cover for game, and apparently less food,—the principal growth being Cacti, of which the most common is Cactus arborescens; yet here, amongst projecting rocks, or on the borders of dry gullies, or in loose scrub, I found the Massena Partridge in all the beauty of his rich and varied plumage.

“The habits of this species are different from those of any other species of partridge that I have met with. They were in covies of from eight to twelve individuals, and appeared to be extremely simple and affectionate in disposition. In feeding, they separated but little, keeping up a social cluck all the time. They were so gentle as to evince little or no alarm on the approach of man; scarcely moving out of his way as he passed, and only running off or flying a few yards, when perhaps half their numbers were laid low by a shot. This inclined me to think they might with little difficulty be domesticated, although I found them here in a boundless, barren waste, and nowhere near the habitation of man. This trait of gentleness is the very opposite of those strikingly manifested by the scaly partridge, (Callipepla squamata,) which I always observed to be, though found perchance in grounds as little frequented as these, remarkably vigilant, shy, and difficult to approach. The call or signal note of this species is peculiar. I never saw it after crossing the Pecos river.”