THE WILSON QUARTERLY. 51 



with those taken further west, except one pair, which are 

 very much paler than the others and may prove a new sub- 

 species. These birds are found on the sand or on the bare 

 volcanic rocks which are so hot it is difficult to hold the 

 hand on them. And just now we see the absurdity of nam- 

 ing a new bird for a state or locality, for the Texan Night- 

 hawk is the common and only Night-hawk of Arizona and 

 California, while the Night-hawk C. Virginianus is the 

 common and only Night-hawk over a large portion of Texas. 

 Further on we cross an arroyo with high banks and see a 

 number of swallows flying about them. We stop long 

 enough to get three. They are of the Rough- winged species. 

 Driving for some cactus we see several Gila Woodpeckers 

 and Gilded Flickers leave them. Hiding behind a bush, as 

 best I can, I await their return, and after waiting half an 

 hour shoot one of the former, but the last named have been 

 too well schooled to be caught in that way. While watch- 

 ing for them I saw a pair of Cactus Wrens feeding their 

 young in the fork of a cactus, and fully 25 feet high. One 

 of the old birds came with food every two or three minutes. 

 I have found nests of this species almost by the hundred in 

 some places, and except in one instance, all were in low 

 branching cactus from three to five feet high. The excep- 

 tion was twelve feet high in an elder tree. But the cactus 

 they love so well does not grow in this part of Arizona, and 

 this nesting site only offers another instance of birds chang- 

 ing their habits to correspond with their surroundings. 

 These were the only wrens of any kind that I saw. 1 now 

 spend an hour or more for eggs and succeed in getting a fine 

 set of Gilded Flicker and two sets of Gila Woodpeckers. 

 For a long time I was puzzled how to get eggs from the 

 cactus, as it needs a ladder twenty or thirty feet long ; but 

 I solved it at last and can climb any of them with the aid 

 of a hatchet, though a rope is of great assistance. It is slow 

 vrork at best, as many of the spines must be trimmed off, 

 and notches cut in the trunk for hands and feet. A rope a- 

 round the cactus and your own body gives you a better chance 

 to work. In this case I made use of the wagon to give me a 



