INTRODUCTION. 7 



It is not possible to give here exhaustive accounts of all the species 

 encountered, but a selection has been made of those especially con- 

 spicuous or noteworthy, and of these certain phases of their life his- 

 tory are detailed at some length. There has been no attempt at uni- 

 formity in these sketches ; they are merely presentations of the several 

 species in the manner in which they are most apt to be encountered. 

 The brief paragraphs entitled " recognition marks " aim to give cer- 

 tain conspicuous features by which the birds may be recognized in 

 life. The nominal lists of species from various localities serve to 

 enumerate those birds actually observed by the writer at the several 

 points indicated. 



To the amateur student of birds visiting the region here treated it 

 is suggested that, together with the present publication, use be made 

 of Bailey's Handbook of Birds of the Western United States 

 (Houghton Mifflin Co., publishers) and Swarth's Distributional List 

 of the Birds of Arizona (Cooper Ornithological Club, Hollywood, 

 Calif.). The former, w,ith its detailed descriptions and numerous 

 illustrations, will serve to identify the species encountered ; the latter 

 lists the birds of the State with the manner of their occurrence, and 

 also contains an exhaustive bibliography of the literature pertaining 

 to the ornithology of Arizona. 



In the following pages the names of birds used are those found 

 in the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of North Ameri- 

 can Birds (1910 edition) with the one supplement since added (1912), 

 or, where there is variation from this standard, the names used are 

 from Swarth's Distributional List of the Birds of Arizona. A single 

 exception to this rule occurs in the Bendire crossbill (Loxia curvi- 

 rostra, bendirei). In the Check-List this species is included under 

 Loxia c. minor. It does not appear in the Distributional List of the 

 Birds of Arizona, as it was not known to occur in the State when the 

 latter was published. As an easily recognizable subspecies it is en- 

 titled to the nomenclatural recognition here accorded the race. 



The very name of the Apache Trail carries with it a suggestion 

 of the romance of the country the road traverses, while the history 

 of the highway itself is an epitome of the story of the State of 

 Arizona. The road, prosaically built to meet modern needs in the 

 construction of Roosevelt Dam, completed by the Government in 

 1911, follows the ages-old trail of the Apache Indian, a well-worn 

 pathway from the barren and forbidding mountain fastnesses in 

 which he made his home, to the valley below, where he found his 

 accustomed prey. With the completion of the dam the prime need 

 of the road's existence ceased to be, but in it there was left to the 

 State a by-product of the reclamation project, as it were a scenic 

 highway of unrivaled attraction. As such it is bound to draw in- 



