iSSs-l Scott on the Breeding Habits of Arizona Birds. 3 23 



than a month ; for, on my return from the pines, about May i , 



I was fully occupied with looking after some of the rarer Hum- 

 mingbirds. 



My notes take up the story of this species again on May 19, 

 when 1 surprised myself by taking three males, and began to 

 realize that another rarity among my bird neighbors was possibly 

 common. Of this I became sure in a few days, as I took four 

 more males on the 20th, and seven males again on the 26th of 

 May, though it was not until the 31st of the month that I secured 

 a female of the species, although my series then included twenty- 

 four male birds. Among the seven individuals procured on the 

 26th of May were two young males that had just left the nest 

 and were under the care of the male parent bird. So the first 

 breeding -must begin very soon after the arrival of the species. 



On this day, too, I found a nest, to be presentlv described, 

 which was just finished. I saw both parents, the female sitting 

 on the nest, and the male singing in the bushes close at hand. 

 The female was very tame, and in order to see the interior of the 

 nest I was obliged to touch her with my ringers before she would 

 leave her home. Several times afterwards, in watching the pro- 

 gress of laying, I was obliged to repeat this action, and once had 

 to lift the bird out of the nest. On May 26, when I discovered 

 the. nest, then apparently finished, it contained no eggs, although 

 the female was sitting very close, as I have described. Daily 

 visits to the spot showed the same circumstances obtaining until 

 May 30, when the first Q<g<g was laid ; and then an c<^ was laid 

 daily until June 2, when the laying was completed, four eggs be- 

 ing in this case the full set. Thus the female, after the nest was 

 apparently completed, was constantly sitting on the nest, it being 

 all the time empty, tor four days. The habit of sitting on a fin- 

 ished nest for a considerable time before any eggs are laid also 

 obtains among certain other species of this region, and seems, 

 from my experience, very characteristic of the Arizona Jay 

 (Aphclocoma sordida arizonce) ; but of this I shall have more to 

 say in detail in another place. 



On the 2d of June I took this nest, then containing four eggs,' 

 as well as both the parent birds (Xos. 2714 °, and 2711 <£), 

 the female being taken from the nest in my hand. And also on 

 the same day, at a point about a mile distant, I obtained a second 

 nest containing young, three in number, about reach - to leave the 



