I 72 Scott, Winter Notes from Soutkern Arizona. [April 



WINTER MOUNTAIN NOTES FROM SOUTHERN 

 ARIZONA. 



BY W. E. D. SCOTT. 



The following record was made during a four days' visit to the 

 highest point of Los Sierras de Santa Catalina, Pima County, 

 Arizona, the time being from November 26 to 29, inclusive, 

 1884. The region is a dense pine and spruce forest, with here 

 and there a sprinkling of poplars and sycamores, and a few ever- 

 green oaks. The readers of 'The Auk' would doubtless have a 

 more definite idea of the exact point, could they have looked 

 down with me on Fort Lowell, which seemed a fairy encamp- 

 ment directly below the solitary hut where I bivouacked. It 

 was real winter at this altitude — a little over 10,000 feet- — with 

 from two to six inches of snow on the ground, and ice in the 

 brooks where the current was not too rapid ; and the region 

 presented a very marked contrast to that about Fort Lowell, 

 and just the other side of Tucson, where the cottonwood trees 

 waved in plain view as green as in June. The four days were 

 of such clear sunshine and blue sky as to make one forget the 

 winter on the ground, and only at night was the cold intense. 

 Bird life was not represented by very many species, but the 

 individual representation of some kept the woo .(s a very lively 

 solitude. 



By far the greater number of birds were Nuthatches, and the 

 Slender-billed Nuthatch {Sitta carolinensis aculeata) was ubiq- 

 uitous, though now and then fairly overshadowed by numerous 

 companies of the Pygmy Nuthatch ( Sitta pygmcea) . Once I 

 heard a very familiar Titmouse note but did not see the maker ; 

 and this was the only hint of a Tit noticed during my visit. 



Associated with flocks of the Mexican Bluebird (Sia/ia mex- 

 icana), which was, by the way, the only kind of Bluebird 

 observed, was always to be found one and sometimes two represen- 

 tatives of the Olive Warbler {Peucedramits olivaceits). The 

 Bluebirds were generally feeding on some insects in the tall pines, 

 in flocks of from six to ten individuals. The Olive Warblers were 

 on the best of terms with their blue friends, and as the Bluebirds 

 were shy and restless thev made it difficult to obtain or observe 



