32 PACIMC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 15 



March 29, and after that day by day around camp until at least the 24th 

 of April. The notes were lond, slow, and i)iaintive, in descending chromatic 

 scale. Sometimes they were preluded, but oftener concluded, by a flycatcher- 

 like flourish of small notes correspondin<>' to the notes of the Cnniplostonia 

 wliicli Stephens found breediu"' near Tucson in 1881, which he described as 

 • ' Ijoop-jjoop-jjoopee'-deedledee' , tlie first half given very deliberately, the re- 

 mainder rapidly." While the number of notes as T heard them varied from 

 three to seven, four or five chromatic notes were perhaps most commoidy 

 heai'd and the song with three was mei'ely an abbreviation of that with five 



notes as 1 1 1 and 111*) Another form freciuenlly heard was 



^ 1 1 1 1 ''''ill 



he-hi-ho-hu-ho or Iw-hi-ho-lui he-he-he 



This also tallies well with Stephens' 



description of "a commoner cry, used by both sexes in calling to one another 



. . a shrill pner pier pier pier, begininng in a high key and falling a note 



each time." The call as I heard it was a loud po-ook or pc-uck of quality simi- 



lai- to that of the song. 



While generally hard to see iji the leafy mes(piite thickets the snuill 

 bird occasionally appeared out in plain sight on a bare tree and once came to 

 a mesquite close by our tent, perching in characteristic flycatcher style, with 

 wings and tail held loosely, the tail square-spread ready for a spring into the 

 air, his grayish back, light wing bars, and white underparts faintly washed 

 with yellow on belly, showing clearly; his bill, wide at l)ase, showing ))lack 

 al)ove and light below. The same song was reported fi-imi a caiii[) about a mile 

 above. As, by reason of his song, the bird could not have been any one of 

 our native Empidonaxes, by elimination it seems that he must have been the 

 little Beardless Flycatcher whose song descril)ed by Stephens tallies so well 

 with his own. Stephens not only found (Unnpiostoiiia breeding near Tucson in 

 1881. but when with Swarth on the Papago Indian Resci-vation a few miles 

 farther south in 1!)0.S, found wliat was probably a paif and tiicir bi'ood, an 

 adult male aiid a full grown juvenile being taken; so the species had already 

 been recorded about twenty miles from our camp. Sixty miles north of Tuc- 

 son. Luslc informs me, he took a Beardless Flycatcher, March 1. 1911, during 

 migration, on the San Pedro Kivei", ten miles above its junction with the (lila. 



Otocoris alpestris adusta. Scorched Horned Lark 

 A young bird in first i)lumage was taken by Stephens in 18cSl ois the 

 |)lains at the base of the Santa Ritas. Three were taken by Nelson. .luiie 4, 

 1884, at Gardner's Ranch. A few, presumably of this sul)species, which is the 

 breeding one of the region, were seen b.\- S\\;ir1h in June. 190)5, "on the hnri-en 

 nu'sa just l)elow the mountains.'" 



Horned Larks of some s])ecies were seen l)y us se\'eral times diii'ing the 

 wintei- of 1920-1921, flying overhead. One was seen in Dec(Mnber ami a flock 

 of twenty or tliirty on .January lo, on the ridge l)etween Stoiu^ Cabin Canyon 



