PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA 



No. 15 



In January and Fel)rnary, 1923, Dr. Walter P. Taylor, of the Biological 

 Survey, made four short trips to the Santa Ritas from Tucson, crossing the 

 range between Rosemont and Helvetia, climbing the mountains above Madera 

 Canyon, Gardner's Ranch, and Stone Cabin Canyon. About twenty-five speci- 

 mens were collected, and a very full report prepared. 



The Santa Rita Mountains which rise from within a few miles of the Mex- 

 ican border near Nogales and extend mainly northward in the direction of 

 Tucson, for about twenty-five miles, lie west of the Huachucas and east of the 

 Santa Cruz River. The range rises from a base of about 8,500 feet on the west 

 — only 500 feet above the Lower Sonoran giant cactus belt — and culminates 

 in two peaks facing across the head of Madera Canyon, Mt. Hopkins with 

 ail altitude of 8,072 feet and Old Baldy 9,432 feet, together with Josephine 











.^ iiivii,. 





Ill BBl!li|P 



Fig. 3. McCleary's of the 1905 map: now Nicholson's 

 The old adobe built by McCleary in 1900, with a frame addition built by Nichol- 

 son in 1918. Some of the live oaks in which the birds took shelter during the snow- 

 storm oi April 5, 1921. 



Peak, south of Baldy, which reaches an altitude of 8,435 feet ; and a trace of 

 the Canadian zone is found on the heights. The Lower Sonoran zone, repre- 

 sented by cactus, ocotillo, mesquite, catsclaw, and zizyphus, extends from the 

 Santa Cruz Valley uj) over the gradually sloping plain spoken of as the mesa, 

 Avell up the mouths of the canyons and over their Avarm s]o[)es; while the Up- 

 per Sonoran zone, represented l)y the checker-bark(>d juniper, Mexican nut 

 pine, Emory and Arizona live oaks, manzniiitn, mid ceanothns, on warm slopes 

 extends nearly to the top of the mountains; the Transition zone, represented 

 by the Douglas spruce, the Cliih\mhna, Arizona, and while pines, madrone 

 and locust occu])ying only the cold canyon ])ottoms and tlie upper cold slopes 



