INTRODUCTION 



The recorded birds from the ranges adjoining the Santa Ritas — the Santa 

 Catalinas and the Huachucas — have long since been published on by Mr. W. E. 

 D. Scott and Mr. H. S. Swarth and others, but comparatively little has been 

 published on the available material from the Santa Rita Mountains which, as 

 Mr. Swarth discovered, have a markedly different set of breeding birds from 

 that of the Huachucas. Work has been done in the Santa Ritas at various 

 times for fifty years, from 1873 to 1923, on both sides of the range, in almost 

 every month of the year, and it has seemed desirable to bring the results to- 

 gether, not only for the convenience of students of distribution and migra- 

 tion, but for the benefit of future field students in this interesting Mexican 

 borderland'. The warm valleys on the eastern and southern sides of the 

 mountains may add some winter residents to the foothills not found on the 

 northern and western sides ; the migrations may at any time and place afford 

 rewarding surprises ; and much may be learned by a study of the life histories 

 of the summer residents, especially of some of the many hummingbirds and 

 rare Mexican species straying across the border. 



The published records of specimens collected are mainly those of Mr. H. 

 W. Henshaw, Mr. Frank Stephens, and Mr. H. S. Swarth, while the unpub- 

 lished records, to be found in the catalogue of the U. S. National Museum and 

 in the files of the U. S. Biological Survey, are from Dr. E. W. Nelson, Mr. A. 

 H. Howell, Dr. Walter P. Taylor, and Mr. Vernon Bailey. 



In 1872, when Captain Charles Bendire was stationed at Fort Lowell, 

 north of Tucson, he explored the surrounding country for hostile Apaches, but 

 almost no personal notes on the birds of the Santa Ritas are found in his Life 

 Histories. He quotes, however, from the notes of Mr. Stephens and Dr. Nel- 

 son." 



In 1873 and 1874, when ornithologist of the Wheeler Survey, Mr. Hen- 

 shaw did a little collecting at Camp Crittenden (Old Fort Crittenden), at 

 about 4,700 feet altitude, on the east side of the range, where foothill canyons 

 and rocky hillsides on the west and Sonoita Valley on the east afford a great 

 variety of species. His notes from this locality were incorporated in his main 

 Survey report.^ 



In 1881, Mr. Frank Stephens made a collection of Arizona birds for Mr. 

 William Brewster, and when working in the vicinity of Tucson made "a brief 



'This contribution is offered by courtesy of tlie Biological Survey of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture and of the U. S. National Museum, whose files contain most 

 of the records drawn upon. 



'Bendire, Charles, Captain U. S. Army, Life Histories of North American Birds, 

 Smithsonian Institution, Special Bulletin No. I, 1892. 



'Henshaw, H. W., Report upon the Ornithological Collections made in portions of 

 Nevada, Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, during the years 1871, 

 1872, 1873, and 1874. =rRep. Geog. Surv. west 100th Merid. by George M. Wheeler, 

 1875, vol. V, chapter III, pp. 131-507, 977-989, pis. I-XV. 



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