2?8 Batchelder, Whiter Notes from New Mexico. [J ul y 



the hills, as well as among their favorite clumps of scrub oak in 

 the level openings in the canon, they were sure to be found, 

 wherever a plentiful supply of seeds could be picked up, for they 

 were very industrious in appeasing appetites that seemed never 

 quite satisfied. 



On the edge of an irrigating ditch one day (December iS) I came 

 upon a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, the only one I met with. It was 

 feeding near the ground, among the willow bushes that bordered 

 the ditch. 



Another straggler, shot down the river, was brought to me 

 December 23. It was the Great Northern Shrike. With the ex- 

 ception of a specimen obtained by Dr. Coues at Fort Whipple, 

 Arizona, in February, 1865, this is. I believe, the most southern 

 instance of its occurrence in the West that has been yet recorded. 



My friends who shot this Shrike brought me at the same time 

 some Red-winged Blackbirds {Agclccus phmnicens) that they 

 had shot from a flock down the river. Eight days before several 

 others were brought to me, shot from a large flock near the same 

 place. Ten birds out of eleven shot on these two occasions were 

 apparently females, which suggests the probability that the flocks 

 wintering in this neighborhood are made up chiefly of that sex. 



A bird that I saw but once (December 20), was the Kingfisher 

 (Ceryle alcyon). His habits were perhaps somewhat modified 

 by the extreme dryness of the country, for though he was not far 

 off from the river, yet while I saw him he stayed high up on a 

 steep hillside where he generally chose a pine for a perch, though 

 once or twice he alighted on a dead tree. 



The only water bird that occurred was the Green-winged Teal 

 (Qiicrqiiedula carolinensis) . They were quite plenty, and 

 adapted themselves easily to circumstances in this scantily-watered 

 country. Their favorite resort was an irrigating ditch that fol- 

 lowed the course of the river some distance below where it 

 emerges from the canon. This ditch was not more than six feet 

 wide, but the water was clear, and it had a swift current. The 

 banks were thickly lined with slender low willows, that overhung 

 the water, offering an excellent shelter that the Teal seemed to 

 highly appreciate. They were also sometimes to be found along 

 the river, on some of its stiller stretches that were thickly fringed 

 with bushes. Here they led a life of comparative safety, for any 

 one approaching through the dense growth of willows could 

 usually be heard before he caught a glimpse of them, and rising at 



