The Varied Thrush in Wyoming
The Varied Thrush in Wyoming
Mr. L. R. A. Condit, a well-known rancher of Barnum, Wyoming, has presented to the University of Colorado Museum an immature male Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius or subspecies meruloides) taken at his ranch on Beaver Creek, near Barnum, at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains. I find no published record of this species for the state of Wyoming. Mr. Condit informs me that there were about twenty-five or thirty of the birds, of both sexes, presumably, from his account, all immature, and they remained about the ranch for over a week after November 9, 1919. when the specimen at hand was taken. This bird of the northwest has long been known as an occasional straggler into distant territory, seemingly having no regard at all for the artificial lines established by men to separate political subdivisions of the earths ’ surface. There is one record of a mature male for Boulder County, Colorado, and it has been recorded from Kansas, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, etc. Whether this is the true naewius or meruloides I should not dare say with the one specimen before me. The latter is said to nest in Montana and eastern Oregon. With these facts in mind, it is not surprising to find the birds in Wyoming, but its discovery there by Mr. Condit is one of many illustrations of additions to scientific knowledge due to the work and interest of observing laymen.
Junius Henderson
Vp>Univiersity of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, December 27, 1919
