476 MY ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD 



WHILE roaming about in Arizona, sometimes hunting for 

 birds and sometimes for Indians, I used at intervals 

 to see a bird that I did not then know, and that I came to 

 regard at last as great " medicine", so persistently did it elude 

 me now I could not get a shot at the shy thing now a fair shot 

 offered, but we had orders not to shoot for fear of discovery. 

 It was a beautiful jet black creature, showing a pair of white 

 disks, one on each side, when it flew ; generally seen amidst 

 dense chaparral, dashing about with a nervous yet lightsome 

 flight, reminding one of the action of a Mockingbird ; now for 

 a moment balancing with expanding wings and tail on some 

 prominent spray, then darting into the air to secure a passing 

 insect, or hurrying out of sight in the safe recesses of the covert. 

 A rather harsh and querulous note, which I learned to asso- 

 ciate with this wild and restless bird, was sometimes heard 5 

 and once I listened to a superb piece of music which I am per- 

 fectly sure came from this mysterious stranger. It was growing 

 dusk : the scene, the camp of a scouting-party returning from 

 unsuccessful pursuit of some Indians, who had raided and 

 run off our beef, and men busy gathering for burial the charred 

 and dismembered body of a comrade, who had been killed and 

 burned a few days before on that very spot, where the wolves 

 had afterward fought for the remains. The bird of omen, for 

 good or bad, appeared in sombre cerements, and sang such a 

 requiem as touched every heart; the camp grew more quiet than 

 usual, and we went to bed early. 



This was the last time I ever saw or heard this remarkable 

 bird, which was a rather uncommon summer resident in the 

 immediate vicinity of Fort Whipple, though abundant a little 

 lower down and farther south. I noticed its preference for 

 rather open country, and observed some of its traits, as just 

 said, but learned little to the point respecting its habits. It 

 was originally described from Mexico by the noted quinarian, 

 William Swainson, whose whimsical theories of classification 

 should not blind us to the value of his actual contributions 

 to ornithology whose visions, indeed, have represented many 

 curious analogies that birds afford ; and appears to have been 

 first added to the fauna of the United States by Col. George A. 

 McCall, while travelling from Yallecita to El Chino in Cali- 

 fornia. In the course of a mountain brook, whose clear waters 

 were shaded at intervals with gnarled and scrubby oaks, this dis- 

 tinguished officer observed a dozen of the dark-hued birds pitch- 



