iSSs-] Scott on the. Breeding Habits of Arizona Birds. 243 



sometimes almost black mixed with only a few gray feathers, and 

 presenting every phase between this dress and an almost gray or 

 leaden colored one, with only a few black feathers intermixed. 

 The iris in most of these young birds was dark brown. 



They feed mainly on the berries of the juniper, but often one or 

 more might be seen passing with peculiar flight through the air, 

 turning on its own track, descending abruptly, as abruptly rising, 

 and all the time with very measured wing-beats, evidently in pur- 

 suit of small insects. 



All the time they, both adults and young birds, male and fe- 

 male, were calling to each other in a peculiar, bell-like, whis- 

 tling note that was very musical. This I have since found is 

 at all times the principal song. 



I observed these birds at this point well into December, and 

 think it probable they remained as long as the food supply was 

 abundant. 



During the season of 1883 I na ^ little or no leisure to look 

 after birds, and so I was unable to renew my acquaintance with 

 this species until the last part of May, 1884. I was ^ en living at 

 the point treated of in the former two articles of this series, a 

 canon* in Las Sierras de Santa Catalina, on the northern side of 

 the mountains, and running northward and a little easterly to the 

 valley of the Rio San Pedro. 



Here in May the birds were abundant, and wherever the mes- 

 quite extended into and mixed with the live-oak belt, they followed 

 the first mentioned kind of wood, and later in the season I fre- 

 quently met single ones well away from the mesquite in the oak 

 region. Even at this time of year (May) they show a strong 

 preference for all kinds of small fruits, especially wild mulberries, 

 though insects enter as no small item into their diet. 



My observations of the present year lead me to believe that the 

 birds begin to breed early in, that is by the 5th, of May, at this 

 point, which is about a mile down the canon from my house, and 

 at an altitude of about 3500 feet ; though the first nest I found 

 last year (1884), and which contained perfectly fresh eggs, was on 

 the 17th of June. 



* This canon rises high in the mountains, as before described, and runs for twelve 

 miles to the valley above mentioned. In the first article of this series {vide 'Auk' for 

 January, 1885, p. 2, line n), an error in printing speaks of the canon as two miles in 

 length. 



