BIRDS OF THE HUACHUCA MOUNTAINS, 



ARIZONA. 



By Harry S. Swarth. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Huachuca Mountains are a range which have been pretty 

 thoroughly explored by investigators in various branches of natural 

 history, but of which there has been but little published, at least of 

 ornithological interest. A few scattered notes recording the occurrence 

 of various rarities in that region, and some more or less carefully de- 

 tailed accounts of the breeding habits of the most interesting and con- 

 spicuous species of birds inhabiting the mountains are about all that 

 have appeared, but nothing of a general character; and as in the course 

 of several seasons careful work in the mountains many interesting and 

 surprising facts in distribution, migrations, etc., of various species were 

 being continually encountered, which, while they may be familiar to the 

 naturalists who have visited the range, are probably unknown to 

 ornithologists in general, I have been induced to embody the results of 

 my labors in the following pages. The list of residents and summer 

 visitants I believe to be fairly complete, but as stray individuals of many 

 surprising and more or less unexpected species have turned up in the 

 region on various occasions it is but fair to suppose that additional 

 species of this class will have to be added to this list in the future, and 

 it is possible that there are some that I failed to meet with occurring 

 regularly during the fall migration, of which I saw but very little. 

 Though considerable work was done along the valley of the San Pedro 

 River, but a few miles distant, and a number of birds found there not 

 occurring in the Huachucas, I have preferred to limit my list to such 

 species as occur in the mountains, or, ranging over the plains below, 

 occasionally venture up into the mouths of the canyons ; for a great 

 variety of migrating water fowl undoubtedly occurs along the San Pedro 

 River, both in the spring and fall, and these I had hardly any opportunity 

 of observing, so prefer to restrict myself as indicated. 



The following list is, with the exception of a few records quoted 

 from various publications, entirely from observations made and speci- 

 mens collected during three visits to the region under consideration. In 

 1896 four of us, W. B. Judson, H. G. Rising, O. W. Howard and myself 

 made the Huachuca mountains the objective point of a leisurely wagon 

 trip from Los Angeles across the Colorado desert and southern Arizona, 

 and spent three months, from April 25th to July 20th. camped in Ramsey 

 Canyon. In 1902 O. W. Howard and myself were camped together near 

 the mouth of Miller Canyon from March 29th to July 25th. when Mr. 

 Howard returned to Los Angeles, leaving me in the mountains, where 

 I remained until September 5th. In 1903 I was in the mountains, also in 

 Miller Canyon, from February 17th to May 30th. Almost all the col- 

 lecting was done on the east side of the mountains, in the seven canyons 



