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 Mexico.
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.