244 Scott on the Breeding Habits oj Arizona Birds. [J u 'y 



That there is a wide difference in the time of the breeding of 

 different pairs in the same locality cannot be doubted, but my ex- 

 perience leads me to believe that here, at least, only one brood is 

 raised during the season. 



All through July and August, and for the greater part of Sep- 

 tember, the birds remained abundant, feeding on the various 

 berries and small fruits which became ripe as the season pro- 

 gressed, and wherever such fruit as they liked was at all abundant 

 they paid little attention to any other kind of food, though insect 

 life fairly teemed in and about the berries that attracted the birds. 

 They showed a particular fondness for a kind of wild grape, and 

 hunted the country through for such fruit, in parties of from ten 

 to forty. In August and early September the young and old birds 

 were moulting, and by the end of the latter month they began to 

 disappear from the higher altitudes, retiring gradually as the 

 weather became cooler. 



At any time during the past winter, that of 1SS4-S5, until about 

 the middle of March, by going down the canon to the vicinity of 

 the river I could find a few individuals. But after the last of 

 October I did not find them in flocks, but generally singly, or 

 at most two or three in the same locality ; and their food after the 

 middle of November seems to be, in this region, almost entirely 

 insects, which is contrary to the above recorded observations 

 at Mineral Creek. 



After the middle of March of the present year, though I was 

 constantly collecting near the river in this and adjacent canons, 

 and on the mesas and hills at the lower altitudes, I lost sight of 

 the species entirely. And on my frequent journeys to Tucson, 

 about thirty-five or forty miles south, I rarely noticed the birds 

 until well to the south of the mountains, and then only sparingly. 

 My first notice of their return to the point near my house is April 

 20 of the present year, when they immediately became common, 

 and were in some cases, at least, mated. 



A female taken April 28, 1885, had an egg-yolk fully developed, 

 and two others almost ready to enter the oviduct, and though I 

 had not as yet noticed the birds building, this one must have begun 

 to build, or possibly had already finished a nest. 



The following data regarding nests and eggs collected during 

 the breeding season of 1884, are from six nests before me and 

 from notes made during that period. 



