2 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA. [No. 4 



from Tanner to Ash Canyon, by far the best part of the range, ornitho- 

 logically considered. Occasional trips were made to the west slope of 

 the mountains, and along the San Pedro River. In 1896 but compara-. 

 tively few skins were put up, but a large collection of nests and eggs was 

 gathered which is unfortunately inaccessible at the present writing. On 

 the two subsequent trips more attention was paid to the collecting of the 

 birds themselves ; personally 1 put up some 2500 skins, which, with the 

 notes made at the same time, form the basis of the present paper. 



The Huachuca Mountains lie in the southeastern corner of Arizona, 

 extending northwest and southeast, and with their southern extremity 

 lying just over the Mexican boundary line. The range is a small one, 

 about forty miles long, composed of a single ridge or back bone, which 

 reaches its greatest height at about the middle of the range ; where two 

 peaks rise, one to an altitude of about 10,000 feet, and the other a few 

 hundred feet lower. On the eastern slope a number of broad, well 

 watered canyons extend from the plains quite to the divide of the range, 

 while smaller and shorter ones lie between. The western slope is steeper 

 and more rugged, and the canyons are consequently shorter and not so 

 well watered. The base of the mountains at Miller Canyon, about the 

 center of the range lies at an altitude of about 4500 feet, and in this same 

 canyon, where I did most of my collecting, the distance from the mouth 

 of the canyon to the divide (9000 feet) is about six miles. 



The San Pedro River rises west of the Huachucas, circles about the 

 southern extremity of the range, and flows in a northerly direction 

 almost parallel with the mountains and at an average distance of about 

 fifteen miles. Just north of the mountains the Barbocomari River flows, 

 about at right angles with the line of the range, emptying into the San 

 Pedro River at Fairbanks. From the San Pedro to the mountains is an 

 unbroken plain, covered with mesquite and other brush from the river 

 up to within about five miles of the mountains, but for the rest simply a 

 grass covered prairie. Where the various canyons leave the mountains 

 they extend in the shape of washes across the plains to the river, the 

 trees gradually diminishing in size and numbers; and the water sinking, 

 in the summer far above the mouths of the canyons, and in the early 

 spring sometimes two or three miles below, to rise again just before the 

 river is reached. Where the water comes to the surface again rows of 

 large willows, and other vegetation is found. 



The Huachucas are a well wooded range, covered in the higher 

 parts, with various conifers ; along the canyons with maples, alders, ash, 

 madrones, walnuts and sycamores ; with extensive groves of live-oaks 

 over the foothills and along the base of the mountains ; and in places 

 thickly covered with low brush. There are very few willows in the 

 mountains, and these but small bushes ; and of cottonwoods there are 

 but a very few trees scattered along the base of the range. Though 

 some beautiful little species of cactus occur, the various species of 

 pri«„kl^ pear and cholla, so conspicuous about Tucson and many other 

 parts of the territory, are almost entirely absent, both in the mountains 

 and in the plains ; but there are many mescals all over the range, "and, in 

 the foothills a few yuccas. 



The winters are cold in the mountains ; in February, 1903, there was 

 snow lying over the range down to the foothills, and in places along the 



