1923 BIRDS OF THE SANTA RITA MOUNTAINS 33 



and Sawmill Canyon. Others were heard, March 9, t'lyino' overhead at Con- 

 tinental. 



At Gardner's Ranch (r),20() feet), on February 10, 1923. Taylor saAV a 

 flock of "probably twenty to thirty individuals, working over the ground in 

 the open fields near the ranch buildings. " Two specimens secured proved what 

 Oberholser has described as aplirasta, the Chihuahua Horned Lark, which is 

 a winter resident in the Santa Rita region. 



Cyanocitta stelleri diademata. Long-crested Jay 



One was taken by Nelson, July 1, 1884, at Gardner's Ranch. It was found 

 common by Bailey, October 28, 1913, in the pine timber of the mountains. Two 

 adults were taken by Howell, July 30 and August 2, lf)18, when he found 

 it "fairly common but not abundant above 6,000 feet." 



Aphelocoma woodhousei. Woodhonse Jay 



A few lived at the Nicholson Ranch tliroughoiit our stay, feeding largely 

 on acorns from the live oaks. With other birds they frequented the jerky line 

 back of the ranch-house until it was taken down. One was accidentally 

 caught, January 24, 1921, in Stone Cabin Canyon, in a mouse trap baited with 

 sc^uash seed. Its stomach was filled largely with hackberry seeds, many black 

 tieetles, and gravel. The shells of the hackberry seeds which are so hard 

 that they fossilize in limestone, were broken and being ground to powder. 

 The Woodhonse Jay was also found at the Nicholson Ranch, March 25, 1923, 

 by Taylor, 



Aphelocoma sieberi arizonae. Arizona Jay 



Added to our fauna by Col. Bernard J. D. Irwin, Surgeon, U. S. A., at 

 Fort Buchanan, December 9 (1858 ?)," it was sent to tlie Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion and described by Robert Ridgway in 1873.'" 



'■'The year is not given on the label or in the museum catalogue, but from the 

 relation of the entry to others from Irwin, Dr. C. W. Richmond thinks it was probably 

 collected in 1858. 



-"The fact that the Arizona .Jay was descril :ed from the Santa Ritas was brought 

 to my attention by Swarth, and on looking up the type in the National Museum an in- 

 teresting bit of history was brought to light. The location of Fort Buchanan was per- 

 plexing as the maps show old Fort Crittenden in the region ascribed to it — 45 miles 

 southeast of Tucson — but when the matter was referred to the War Department it was 

 explained by the records. Fort Buchanan, formerly Camp Moore, was established at 

 the head of Sonoita Creek, November 7, 1856, and destroyed and abandoned, July 23, 

 1861; birds and eggs being sent in from there by Irwin in 1858 and 1859. Fort Critten- 

 den was established 07i the same site, March 4, 1868, being in its turn abandoned, .lune 

 1, 1873, when it went back to the public domain by proclamation of President Grant. On 

 investigation it was found that i)eculiar historic interest attaches to the forgotten 

 collector as well as to the locality of the type. For in Mearns' Mammals of the Mexican 

 Boundary, Irwin is said to have sent to the Smithsonian Institution, at the suggestion 

 of Prof. Baird, "very large collections of the reptiles and l)atrachians of old Fort Buchan- 

 an" and, Mearns adds, "More important than all Colonel Irwin's contributions of notes 

 and specimens to the Smithsonian Institution was his early training of Charles Emil 

 Bendire, the distinguished author of Life Histories of North American Birds, in exact 

 methods of scientific observation. Bendire was then a young soldier of his command, 

 attached to the hospital corps, and stationed at old Fort Buchanan and other camps 

 in the vicinity of Fort Lowell and Tucson." (Mammals of the Mexican Boundary of the 

 LTnited States, by E. A. Mearns, M. D., Smithsonian Institution, IT. S. National Museum, 

 Bulletin 56, 1907, p. 109.) 



