PASSERES— SAXICOLIDAE— SIALIA ARCTIC A. 



163 



Soc. Nat. Hist., June, 1874, 19.— Bd., Beew., & Ridg., N. A. Birds, i, 

 1871, G7, pi. V, f. 2.— COUES, U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., 1871,, 14. 



A common inhabitant of the mountainous regions of the central dis- 

 trict, and very numerous in Utah, Colorado, and in Northern New Mexico 

 and Arizona. It seems to be of a less confiding chsposition than the pre- 

 vious species ; and I have usually found it during- the breeding season in the 

 wild, elevated districts, from 7,000 feet upward, where it frequents the 

 more open spaces, where aspen groves alternate with the remains of pine 

 woods, the broken stubs of which, charred by the fires whicli have swept 

 tla-ough again and again, are seen on every side. In the cavities of these 

 stubs, and the deserted Avoodpeckers' holes in the aspens, they breed during 

 the early summer months. In the neighborhood of Santa Fd, they breed 

 commonly, and here were noticed in the vicinity of houses, seeming in 

 fact to be as familiar and as much at home as does our own bluebird in the 

 East. Two broods are reared in a season. They do not apparently get 

 much farther south in summer than Santa F^, but in the late fall and winter 

 are spread over the greater portion of both New Mexico and Arizona. In 

 Utah, they were first noticed as migrating south in small flocks in early 

 August. From this time until November 15, they were usually seen in 

 small detached companies, pursuing their way southward. 



