66 Mearxs oil Birch of Arizona. [January 



green leaves; mesquites, before scarcely noted, also leaved and 

 bloomed, and an almost endless succession of handsome annuals 

 sprang from the dun-colored soil, until the inflorescence was as 

 marked as the seeming lack of vegetation at first. As the season 

 advanced, the temperature steadily rose, until we resorted to the 

 grateful shade of the cottonvvoods beside the river from neces- 

 sity, during the hottest hours of the day ; and there I was not 

 long in discovering the two black Hawks which are the subject 

 of this writing. 



One day, when examining the work of beavers beside the 

 Verde, a Zone-tailed Hawk emerged from the dark shad« of a 

 neighboring belt of cottonvvoods, moving straight towards me on 

 motionless wings and passing within a few feet, scanning the 

 water beneath with intent interest and paying no attention to me, 

 but moving its head with a restless side movement. Later in the 

 day I secured a handsome example as it flew overhead, and 

 thereafter frequently observed them throughout the entire year 

 beside the Verde River, where they capture lizards, frogs, fishes, 

 and other desirable articles of raptorial diet. 



I never experienced any difficulty in distinguishing between it 

 and the melanistic form of Swainson's Hawk ; when in hand, 

 specimens may be readily diagnosed by the presence of but three 

 emarginated outer primaries in Huteo swainsoni^ instead of four 

 as in J3. abbreviatus ; the color pattern of the tail, and the white 

 base of the feathers of the latter are likewise diagnostic. 



The Zone-tailed Hawk is of quite general distribution in Ari- 

 zona, in the vicinity of the streams which it frequents. I have 

 seen it near Prescott, at a considerable elevation (about 6000 

 feet) , and at v^arious points between there and the city of Tucson, 

 in the southern part of the Territory, where I found it quite 

 numerous during the past spring. 



I never succeeded in detecting the nest of this Hawk in the 

 Verde Valley, and therefore considered myself fortunate in find- 

 ing two nests elsewhere during the past spring. It was with a 

 peculiar sensation of pleasure and i-elief that I rode my hunting 

 horse 'Daisy' into the cool shade of some beautiful cotton- 

 wood trees upon the banks of the New River, Arizona, on the 

 i6th of May, 18S5, and filled m)' canteen in the stream and 

 drank, while my brute companion slaked her thirst after the 

 manner of her equine kind. We had travelled nearly a thousand 



