campylorhynchus (curved beak) brunneicapillus (from brunneus, brown and capillus, hair)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 9:45 am
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Arizona
The Cactus Wren was singing from a perch on top of an ocotillo stalk. Its song sounded rather like a car starting.
toxostoma (from toxon, bow, and stema, bill) curvirostre (from curvus, curved, and rostrum, beak)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 9:45 am
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Arizona
Almost as soon as we walked through the gate into the zoo/park, I spotted a Curve-billed Thrasher on top of a saguaro cactus singing “per-wheet.”
pipilo (to chirp) fuscus (dusky)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 9:30 am
Tucson Mountain Park, Arizona
As I was following a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher down a dry wash through a scrubby saguaro forest, I spotted a Canyon Towhee foraging on the ground in the wash. I would have liked to watch it longer, but Dad was anxious to be going. He had already gotten back in the van and was calling for me to hurry so we could go relax somewhere else.
polioptila (from polios, and ptilon, feather) melanura (from melanos, black, and oura, tail)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 9:30 am
Tucson Mountain Park, Arizona
Mom and Dad took us to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for the morning. On the way, Mom pulled over to the side of the road so I could experience a saguaro forest. I wandered off from the others through scattered cactus and thick scrub. I entered a dry wash and heard a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher calling loudly and hoarsely. It was foraging bush to bush along the wash.
columbina (scaly appearance of feathers) inca (given in 1847 by Rene Primivere Lesson, French naturalist and traveler, for the Inca Empire)
Saturday, March 31, 1984 — 8:15 am
Tucson, Arizona
I wandered out on the balcony of Mom and Dad’s apartment and saw two Inca Doves chasing each other around on the tin roof of the small house next door. I later heard them singing an oft-repeated, “No hope.” The area had many small homes, all landscaped with sand, rocks and cactus.
