The need for continued scientific collecting; a geographic analysis of Mexican bird specimens

The geographic and spatial distribution of more than 221,000 bird specimens collected in Mexico was analyzed on a grid of 1 degrees blocks to assess adequacy of representation of the country's avifauna in world systematic collections. Frequency distributions of specimens per block, specimens per species expect-ed in blocks and total specimens per species were all severely right-skewed, with a few blocks well sampled but most represented by very few specimens. Overall, seven scattered blacks out of about 240 were considered well sampled. The best sampled species in the country (House Finch Carpodacus mexicanus) and the best sampled Mexican endemic species (Russet Nightingale-thrush Catharus occidentalis) were characterized by uneven and inadequate spatiotemporal sampling, especially in autumn, when plumages are generally fresh and most useful for studies of geographic variation; sampling for a species close to the median of the distribution (Great Black-hawk Buteogallus urubitinga) was scattered and inappropriate for statistical analysis, Results suggest strongly that sampling of Mexican birds is incomplete, that continued scientific collecting is needed to complete knowledge of the country's avifauna and that similar collecting efforts will be necessary throughout much of the tropics.