a7id Notes on the Birds of Arizona. 159 



Chroscocephahs franklini, &c. On making the Arkansas River, I 

 first encountered Ravens — probably Corvus cacolotl, perhaps C. 

 carnivorous. 



The Raton Mountains, to the eastward of Fort Union and 

 Taos, were the first we came to. Here I met with Herse thalas- 

 sina, Pica hudsonica, and Cyanura stelleri. I found also Chry- 

 somit7'is pinus and Planesticus migratorius. 



The next point at which I made any observations of moment 

 was Los Pinos, a New Mexican town on the Rio Grande, about 

 twenty miles below Alboquerque. Here I spent a few days busily 

 in collecting. In this, and all other New Mexican towns, the 

 commonest and most characteristic bird is the pretty little 

 "Burion," or Carpodacus frontalis [familiaris, M'Call). It is 

 there, what Spizella socialis is in the east ; breeding indifferently 

 in the court-yards, sheds, under porticoes or eaves, and also in 

 the forks of trees in the streets. It has shax'p conflicts with the 

 Barn-Swallows, whose nests it often takes possession of. It is 

 a lively and most agreeable feature in the dirty towns which it 

 honours with its presence, and its song is sweet, clear, and ex- 

 quisitely melodious. Hirundo horreorum and Herse lunifrons are 

 also very abundant. Among other eastern forms common on 

 the Rio Grande at this point are, AgelcBus phceniceus, Zenaidura 

 carolinensis, Molothrus pecoris, Tinnunculus sparveriits, Cathartes 

 aura, Mimus polyglottus, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, Pyranga 

 cestiva,Dendrceca cestiva^and Cotyle 7'iparia. As birds not hitherto 

 seen, I found Himantopus nigricollis, Picus scalaris, Colaptes 

 mexicanus, and a Contopus, certainly not C. virens, though much 

 like that species. It must be C. richardsoni, I think. Also 

 Sayornis sayus and Ibis rubra. 



Across the Rio Grande, directly westward of this point, there 

 stretches a barren sandy waste for several days' journey. Here 

 the Eremophila again made its appearance, more numerously 

 even than in the Kansas plains, and here I first saw ^gialites 

 montanus. A little further on, as we approached Fort Wingate 

 and the Zuni range of the Sierra Madre, the country is more 

 fertile and watered, and I encountered Poospiza bilineata and 

 the lovely little Chrysomitj'is mexicana (of which I shall have more 

 to say anon), also the Myiarchus mexicanus. 



