232 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



complete, I concluded to ]>;iy them a second visit and secure the other eggs 

 iind one of the parent birds also. On reaching camp and blowing the egg, I 

 found it quite fresh. 



On May ;i, I paid a second visit to this locality and found .one of the birds 

 on the nest, where it remained until I rode up to the tree and rapped on it with 

 the butt of my shotgun. This caused it to fly off about 50 yards farther up, on 

 the opposite side of the dry creek bed, where it alighted in a smaller tree. As 

 the bird appeared so very tame I concluded to examine the nest before attempt- 

 ing to secure the parent, and it was well I did so. Climbing to the nest I found 

 another egg, and at the same instant saw from my elevated position something 

 else which could not have been observed from the ground, namely, several 

 Apache? Indians crouched down on the side of a little canon Avhich opened into 

 the creek bed about 80 yards farther up. They were evidently watching me, 

 their heads being raised just to a level with the top of the canon. 



In those days Apache! Indians were not the most desirable neighbors, 

 especially when one was up a tree and unarmed; I therefore descended as 

 leisurely as possible, knowing that if I showed any especial haste in getting 

 down they would suspect me of having seen them; the egg I had placed in my 

 mouth as the quickest and safest way that I could think of to dispose of it 

 and rather an uncomfortably large mouthful it was, too nevertheless I reached 

 the ground safely, and, with my horse and shotgun, lost no time in getting to 

 high and open ground. I returned to the place again within an hour and a half 

 looking for the Indians, but what followed has no bearing upon my subject. I 

 only mention the episode to account for not having secured one of the parents 

 of these eggs. I found it no easy matter to remove the egg from my mouth 

 without injury, but I finally succeeded, though my jaws ached for some time 

 afterward. On blowing it the next day I found it slightly incubated. It was 

 unspotted like the first. The nest was evidently an old one which had been 

 used for many years. It was quite flat on top and sparingly lined with cotton- 

 wood bark. 



On May 17, a set of three eggs were brought to me by two of my men 

 who were familiar with the appearance of these birds. The nest was in a simi- 

 lar situation in a large cottonwood tree near the sink of the Santa Cruz River, 

 about 10 miles northeast of Tucson. These also were unspotted and nearly 

 fresh. 



At that time I was not aware that the Mexican Black Hawk was found 

 in Arizona, but on a subsequent visit to Washington, District of Columbia, 

 in the fall of 1874, while examining specimens of both Butco albm-idtus and 

 Urubitinya anthracina, I saw plainly that I had accurately described a peculiar 

 plumage of the latter species which is not found in liittco dbbreviatue, and on 

 showing my original notes to Mr. Robert Ridgway, of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, he fully agreed with me that my description of a bird seen on April 4, 

 1872, plainly referred to the Mexican Black Hawk. On the strength of this, 

 as well as of the description of the eggs of ISiitro nhhirruihin being spotted, 



