Dr. E. Coues. — FroDi A,izoua tu the Pacijlc. 2G1 



soutli-west corner of Arizona, and in returning after a few days 

 spent at Fort Yunia. We were on tJie little steamer ' Cocopah ;' 

 and by a singular coincidence her commander, Captain Robinson, 

 was the man who twelve years before had piloted Lieutenant 

 J. C. Ives and his party in the * Explorer,' the first steamboat 

 that ever passed over the shores and rapids of this difficult 

 river. 



Sai/ornis nigricans, a common species throughout Southern 

 Arizona, was perhaps, among the land birds, our most constant 

 companion. Perched, generally in pairs^ upon the dense ver- 

 dure that in many places overhangs the river, it pursued its 

 constant vocation of securing the vagrant insects around it, ever 

 uttering its peculiar unmelodious notes. In all its motions the 

 Pewee of the Eastern States was unmistakeably reproduced. It 

 was, for a Flycather, rather shy and wary, which fact, joined 

 with the almost impassable nature of the thickets, is my only 

 and lame excuse for its absence from my collection. It is not, 

 apparently, a hardy bird, and I never saw it, eveu in summer, 

 about the Whipple mountains, though in the southern portions, 

 both of Arizona and California, it remains throughout the winter. 

 River-bottoms are but one of its resorts. Like S.fuscus, and 

 extremely unlike S. sayus, it also delights in deep mountain- 

 gorges and precipitous canons, through which little streams may 

 flow, where upon a jutting bit of rock, or on the bare, flat sand, 

 it unites its sharp cries with the queer ringing laugh trilled out 

 by its neighbour and friend the little Caiherpes mexicanus. 



Often when breaking a toilsome way through next to im- 

 passable thickets, I was startled by a loud, clear, sharp chiip, de- 

 cidedly Fringilline, but far more powerful than usual. It was 

 the alarm-note of Pipilo aberti, which everywhere in the valley 

 is a most characteristic bird. Fort Yuma seemed to be its 

 headquarters. A retiring species, like all its congeners, it 

 keeps perseveringly in the most provoking undergrowth, and 

 would rarely find its way into collections were it not so 

 common. It seems to me more decidedly gregarious than 

 most of the genus, often collecting in flocks of a dozen or 

 more, wandering restlessly, yet in a cautious and subdued manner, 

 through the thickets^ Associating freely with this species is 



