130 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



iiich by .70. One of the nests was in a low mesquite-tree, another in a dense 

 chister of dead twigs hanging from a cottoiiwood. The time rec^uired for 

 hatching was twelve or thirteen days, and in a fortnight more the young left 

 tlie nest. Dr. Cooper foiind nests with eggs as late as May 25, and had no 

 doubt that they raise two or more broods in a season. He adds that the 

 song of the male, throughout April and May, is precisely like that of P. fus- 

 cux, and also reminded liim of the notes of P. orcyonus and of the eastern 

 Black-throated Bunting {Euajnza ariiericana). 



Dr. Coues has kindly supplied me with the following interesting sketch of 

 this si)ecies, as observed by him in Arizona : — 



" This species appears to have a remarkably restricted geographical di.stri- 

 bution. I never saw it at Fort Whipple, but on the Colorado bottom in the 

 same latitude, and thence along the river to Fort Yuma, I found it to be one 

 of the most abundant and characteristic birds of all. At the tiuie I observed 

 it, in September, it was generally in small flocks, and proved rather difficult 

 to capture, partly because the dense underbrush it inhabited was almost im- 

 penetrable, and partly on account of its natural timidity. Everything along 

 the river-bottom is scorclied with the heat, and the dry dead twigs constantly 

 sua}) at a touch, with such noise that it is almost impossible to force a pas- 

 sage through tlie underbrush without alarming all its inmates. The bird 

 occurs everj'where along the river-side, but is particularly numerous on the 

 patches of mesquite, and tlie extensive areas grown up to young willows and 

 cotton woods, and tlie arrowwood (Tessaria horcalis). Its ordinary ciy of 

 alarm, if not its call-note, is a loud, clear cliirp, very difierent from the mew- 

 ing sound made under similar circumstances by its congener, the P. mega- 

 lonyx. The latter, as is well known, is almost exactly like that of a Catbird. 

 I never heard the song of this bird, which appeai-s to sing only during the 

 breeding-season, but Dr. Cooper says it resembles that of the western Black 

 Pipilos, and I can indorse his observation, that this is curiously like the mo- 

 notonous notes of the Black-tliroated Bunting, — ChijJ, chip, chec-chec-chec ; 

 the first two syllables deliberately pronounced, the others more rapidly enun- 

 ciated, with greater emphasis. The associates of this species seem to be few, 

 if indeed they be not confined to the P. mesolcums, a very near ally. Tiie 

 moult seems to me unusually protracted, as many September specimens were 

 still in poor plumage. 



" E.\cepting my experience with tliis bird on the Colorado, I only met with 

 it on the Hassayampa, a small stream a few miles from Fort Whipple, yet in 

 a somewhat different region, across a slight mountain-ridge, lower and warmer. 

 Two specimens were secured, adult and young, the first week in August." 



Dr. Coues, on his way from Arizona to the Pacific (Ibis, 1866, p. 261), 

 mentions that he was often startled by the loud, clear, sharp chirp of this 

 bird, which, though fringilline in character, is more tlian usually powerful, 

 and is its alarm-note. Everywhere in the Colorado ^'alley this was one of 

 the most characteristic birds. Fort Yuma seemed to be its head-quarters. It 



