2^6 Batchelder, Winter Notes from New Mexico. [April 



from one to another, stopping now and then to cluck its head in 

 for some bit of food, and occasionally standing still on a stone. 

 Once, at least, it stood for a few moments on' a stone, the top of. 

 which was covered by the water. Whenever it stood still it 

 kept up the dipping, but I did not detect the motion except 

 when the bird was stationary. After poking about the rapids 

 for a while it came out on the snowy ice and walked about on 

 it. Then coming to the edge of the ice it dropped oft" into the 

 water, and presently reappeared having swum down stream 

 under the ice. Apparently there was room for it to do so with- 

 out diving. All the while it paid not the slightest attention to 

 me. Perhaps it was as well that it never knew the fate that was 

 in store for it: it now occupies a place in my collection. 



They were as a rule quite silent birds. Besides the Kingfisher- 

 like cry the only note I heard from them was one day when 

 passing the same spot, I heard a cry that sounded like a magni- 

 fied song of a grasshopper or katydid. Turning, I found it 

 came from one of two Ouzels that were chasing each other, 

 flying swiftly along the stream at about a foot from the surface. 

 Their flight reminds me of that of the Black Guillemot. 



The Ouzels were much more numerous than writers on the 

 subject had led me to expect. Along some ten miles of the 

 Gallinas River there must have been as many as twenty individ- 

 uals during my stay. Very likely there were more of them than 

 in summer, for though they are not a strictly migratory species, 

 many of the mountain streams where they make their homes 

 must freeze in winter, and so compel them to seek a temporary 

 habitation among the streams in the foot-hills, that are either too 

 large or too far south to freeze up entirely. 



Down the river below the mouth of the canon, where the grav- 

 elly banks of the stream are thickly covered with a growth of low 

 willows and other bushes, Song Sparrows {Melospiza fasciata 

 montana) were to be found. With the exception of two or three 

 on the stretches of level ground bordering the river above the 

 springs, I found none elsewhere. As compared with the East- 

 ern Song Sparrow I noticed no difference in habits. Their chirp, 

 the only note I heard them utter, was indistinguishable from that 

 of M. fasciata. 



Here, too, I occasionally came across a little flock of Tree Spar- 

 rows {Spizella monticola. ockracea) , though they did not con- 



