CACTUS DESERT BIRD-LIFE 



The great cactus-covered deserts, so characteristic of 

 the more arid portions of Mexico, push a well-developed 

 arm northward into Arizona, where it forms too marked a 

 feature of North American scenery to be omitted from any 

 series of representations designed to include at least the 

 more pronounced types of our landscape. 



Since this region has no colonies of birds, and no one 

 bird of sufficient size to be treated alone in a group, it was 

 decided to prepare a group which should show its commoner 

 birds as well as its commoner forms of vegetation. 



Tucson, the site of the Desert Botanical Laboratory of 

 the Carnegie Institution, was selected as a suitable locality 

 for our labors, throughout which we had the invaluable 

 advice of Dr. D. T. MacDougal, the Director of the Labora- 

 tory. 



We were fortunate in finding, the morning after our 

 arrival, on May 9, a tent-house completely furnished, from a 

 shower-bath to a can-opener. The preparateur of our party 

 was at once appropriately installed as cook, with the artist 

 as assistant, while the ornithologist acted in an advisory 

 capacity. We were served daily by the butcher and baker, 

 and even the iceman, and in addition to all these con- 

 veniences and material comforts, we were surrounded by 

 many birds and plants we had come to study. 



From our home on a hillside, about a mile west of Tuc- 

 son, we had a grand view of the Santa Cruz Valley with 

 irrigated alfalfa fields in the foreground, the city in the 

 middle distance, and the beautifully modelled Santa Cata- 

 lina Mountains on the horizon. 



The desert vegetation was at its best, and, looking out 

 over a sea of variously colored and luxuriant blossoms, it 



