THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 

 vol. ii. October, 1885. No. 4. 



ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF SOME ARIZONA 



BIRDS. 



BY W. E. D. SCOTT. 



Fourth Paper. Vireo vicinior. 



The investigation of the bird fauna of the canon described in 

 detail in the first paper of this series proved so interesting that I 

 was rarely tempted outside of a very limited region during that 

 part of the year 1884 preceding October 1, and a number of 

 species that did not attract my attention at all during that period 

 proved not only to be abundant on the mesas and foot-hills of the 

 region immediately adjoining, hut were of the greatest interest 

 on account of their heretofore supposed rarity. Chief among 

 tiiese birds stands the Arizona or Gray Vireo ( Vireo vicinior) , 

 of which, so far as I can learn, only about a dozen individuals 

 have been procured since its discovery and description by Dr. 

 Cones in 1866. This species, on the San Pedro River foot- 

 hills of Las .Sierras de Santa Catalina, at an altitude ranging 

 from 2800 to 4000 feet (which is here the point of meeting of 

 the mesquite timber and the evergreen oaks), is, excepting the 

 Least Vireo ( Vireo pustllus), the commonest form of Vireo, 

 being fairly abundant, as the following notes will show. 



The two altitudes mentioned seem to be about the limits of 

 the species while breeding, and most of the birds secured were 



