2K6 Scott ofi ///I B/rds of Arizotia. f April 



during the period of heat, now regain them, and sometimes 

 flower again. 



The winds are at times during the wet seasons, particularly in 

 the winter, very violent, both in the mountains and on the plains; 

 and even during the intermediate dry intervals, which comprise 

 a series of cloudless days. There are, especially during the 

 earlv spring, severe storms of wind, accompanied by clouds of 

 dust and tine sand, in the more arid country. '^J'he atmosphere 

 is peculiarly di"y and clear at all times, save when rain is falling, 

 but is perhaps most noticeably so directly after a rain or wind- 

 storm. 



The temperature on the plains ranges from about 28° Fahr. 

 in the coldest of the winter days to 115° in the summer. These 

 figures, of course, indicate the great extremes. At the point 

 where mv house is, in the mountains at an altitude of 45S0 feet, 

 the mercury has once this winter (1S85-86) reached 18°, but 

 this was on the occasion of a storm of unusual severity. The 

 average temperature here of the winter months is about 50°, and 

 of the summer months 85°. 



The Pinal, Santa Catalina, and Santa Rita are the only ranges 

 which have pine forests, and these prevail only at the higher 

 altitudes. The characteristic feature of the vegetation below the 

 pine forests is a belt of evergreen oak, which extends down to a 

 little below 4000 feet on the northern, and not much below 4500 

 feet on the southern slopes. 



The birds of this area, as a whole, may be divided into groups 

 which are partly connected with the three greatly differentiated 

 regions here discussed, namely : birds of the valleys and plains ; 

 birds of the oak belt ; and birds of the pine regions. Though many 

 species range at diflerent times of the year in common over all of 

 these districts, yet there are others, both resident and migratory, 

 which I have never seen outside of the single area they affect. 

 For instance, Bendire's and Palmer's Thrashers are not to be en- 

 countered outside of the valleys and lower plains or mesas. 

 Strickland's Woodpecker and the Arizona Jay are always associ- 

 ated in my mind with the oak belt, for I have never met them be- 

 yond its limits ; and Grace's Warbler, the Red-fronted Warbler, 

 and the Mexican Crossbill are in the same way, so far as I am 

 aware, confined to the pine woods. Yet of these birds — and all 

 are met with near m\ house, the extremes being not more than 



