2A.2 Scott on the Breeding Habits of Arizona Birds. [ July 



ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF SOME ARIZONA 



BIRDS. 



BY W. E. D. SCOTT. 



Third Paper. PhainopepJa nitcus. 



A few words as to the distribution of the species {Phahiopepla 

 nitens) under consideration, as I have found it occurring in Pinal 

 and Pima Counties, Arizona, and something regarding its move- 

 ments in a migratory sense, will occupy part of the present paper, 

 which should, perhaps, more properly have to do only with data 

 regarding the breeding season. 



At Riverside, in Pinal County, during the spring of 18S2, I 

 found this species to be rather uncommon, and doubtless it will 

 be found breeding at that point, though I failed to detect it ; and 

 during my stay of two months at Riverside I saw only three or 

 four of the birds. 



Later in May I had occasion to go into the mountains to the 

 north of Riverside, at a considerably higher altitude than that 

 place, and here, in what is known as the Mineral Creek District, 

 in the Pinal Mountains, I found the species an abundant one. My 

 stay was so short and my time was so fully occupied with other 

 matters, that I had no leisure to do more than make the above 

 observation. 



Coming back to this same region, Mineral Creek, in late July, 

 and remaining for about five weeks, I found that the young birds 

 were full grown, and that the great numbers of birds I had seen 

 in May were now only represented by a very few moulting birds, 

 mainly young ones. Again, leaving Mineral Creek about the last 

 of August, I returned to that point about the 10th of October and 

 remained until December 15. Soon I found that in certain local- 

 ities, — sheltered flats in broad canons, where there is a heavy 

 growth of a kind of juniper, then laden with fruit, — the birds 

 were very abundant, often gathering in flocks of fifty or more, 

 and reminding one of the common Cedar Bird (A?npelis cedro- 

 rum). The individuals making up these parties were mainly 

 young birds of the year, all having fully completed the moult '. 

 the young males being in a curious parti-colored plumage, 



