2^4 Batchelder, Whiter Notes from New Mexico. [ July 



a pile of corded firewood, and almost every time he uttered his 

 note he would at the same instant jerk his body, not to mention 

 his conspicuous tail, around to one side or the other, alternately 

 to the left and right, revolving about a quarter of a circle each 

 time. Finally he flew to a little bridge over a gully back of 

 the house." 



The only other Wren that occurred was the Rock Wren 

 (Salpinctes obsolettis) , of which I obtained two one cold 

 morning (December 22) when the ground was covered with a 

 light snow that had fallen the day before. They were at points 

 some distance apart, each on the side of a steep, rocky hill, thus 

 bearing out their name much better than they do in some parts 

 of their habitat. To trespass somewhat beyond my bounds, at 

 Riverside, California, where I found them abundant in January 

 and February, 18S3, they frequented open plains and bare» hill- 

 sides destitute of rocks, and nearly so of vegetation. Their 

 favorite resorts there were places where the clayey soil, baked 

 hard by the sun, had been cut out by the occasional heavy 

 rainfalls into little gullies, perhaps ten feet deep and often less 

 than that in width, whose perpendicular sides reproduced in 

 miniature the form of the great canons of. some of our western 

 rivers. In the sides of these gullies there were a great many 

 holes, some made by the water, others by the ground squirrels 

 or other rodents, and about these holes and around the pro- 

 jecting corners of the crooked, narrow gullies the birds were 

 continually dodging back and forth, giving you a glimpse of 

 them here, and then disappearing and turning up unexpectedly 

 some distance off. 



The same morning that I met with the Rock Wrens I shot 

 the only Arctic Bluebird {Sialla arctica) that I saw during 

 my stay. It was perched on the edge of a rudely made brush 

 dam that held back the waters of the stream, forming a pond 

 from which started one of the irrigating ditches, its exquisite 

 coloring contrasting brilliantly with the new-fallen snow that 

 covered the ground. Very likely the bird had been driven down 

 from the mountains by the snowstorm. 



There are several spots along the river that will remain fixed 

 in my memory not merely on account of their natural beauty, 

 but because they formed the background to scenes in which that 

 most interesting bird, the Water Ouzel ( Cinchis mexicanus) 



