22 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



warbler {Dendrceca nigrescens). Fine series of the Arizona jay {Cya- 

 nocitta sordida), the Strickland's woodpecker {Picus stricMandi), Law- 

 rence's flycatcher (Myiarchus laivrencei), and of other species of greater 

 or less rarity were secured here. 



"The Scott's oriole {Icterus parisorum) was found rather common but 

 extremely shy there, and a number of skins were taken. Above the 

 oak belt on this small group of mountains is a sparsely timbered belt 

 of pines reaching to the summit, at about 10,000 feet altitude. The 

 deer, bears, and peccaries, or 'musk-hogs,' as they are called locallj'^, 

 were once very numerous in these mountaius, but tbe ocx;upation of 

 every permanent spring or creek by ranchmen, and the presence of 

 prospectors at all seasons, has nearly driven the game from these hills. 



" The vicinity of my camp, near Gardiner's ranch, is probably the 

 very best location for a collector that these mountains afford and is a 

 rich field for the ornithologist. From this camp, in company with two 

 friends, an excursion was made toward the Mexican border into a low 

 bottom. This bottom is heavily wooded with cottonwoods and other 

 trees and is a notoriously malarial region. It is full of birds, but who- 

 ever ventures tbere to do any extended work must be ague-proof. In 

 this bottom the blue grosbeak was very common, as many as fifteen or 

 twenty being seen on some days. At the head of this valley, in the 

 open grassy flats, tbe Arizona sparrow [Peuccea arizona) was very abund- 

 ant, and its sweet song was heard from morning till night. 



" The middle of July I broke camp and moved about twenty-five miles 

 southeast to Camp Huachuca, at the base of the Huachuca Mountaius. 

 Very little was done here, as the mountains and their faunas were very 

 similar, and nothing, not taken before, was seen. Both the Santa Rita 

 and Huachuca Mountains are poorly watered ; and although s])ecial at- 

 tention w^as not given to hunting for ruins or other evidences of ancient 

 occupation by Indians, yet notliing of the kind having been found in my 

 tramps after birds would indicate a paucity of such remains ; nor could 

 the prospectors familiar with tbese mountains name any such ruins. 

 In August I returned to Tucson for a few days and made a flying visit 

 to the Papago Indian Reservation, nine miles south of town, at tbe old 

 mission of San Xavier. There I secured samples of their pottery and 

 other of their manufactures, such as the few natives present could be 

 induced to part with. These natives make the large porous water-jars 

 with which every house is supplied in Southern Arizona. Tbe women 

 mix the clay with horse-dung and tben mold it up by hand into the 

 tall, gracefullj^- shaped jars, smoothing it on tbe surface with a small 

 wooden trowel. The pot is tben baked in a hot tire, and the parti- 

 cles of dung being burned out, the requisite porosity is ol)tained. 

 When filled with water the fluid oozes slowly through the sides and 

 bottom of tbe jar, and if kept in a shaded spot tbe rapid evaporation 

 from the surface kee])s the water inside cool and palatable in tbe hot- 

 test weather. This jar is almost a necessity in every household in the 

 hot southern region where ice is almost unknown. Tbe Papagoes of 

 San Xavier derive a considerable income from the sale of these jars. 

 The women hawk them about the streets of Tucson and sell them for 

 twenty-five cents each. This is certainly not an exorbitant price for a 

 jar that will hold from five to ten gallons, and which the seller has packed 

 nine miles, upon her back, into town. 



"The intensely hot weather caused me to leave Tucson after a very 

 short stay there, and the 20th of August found me located at Springer- 

 ville, at the eastern base of the White Mountains, and at an altitude of 

 about 6,600 feet. The change from the arid, sun-baked plains of thd 



