270 SCOTT'S ORIOLE. 



"During the spring and summer of 1884 it was my good fortune to make the 

 acquaintance of a number of birds whose breeding habits are at best but little known, 

 and the following data give some of the results of such observations. Most of the notes 

 on the species in question were made at a point, to be more fully described presently, on 

 the San Pedro slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains, in Pinal County, Arizona. 



"Here Scott's Oriole arrives about the middle of April, and is at once among the 

 more conspicuous iDirds, both for its brilliant plumage and rich song. Few birds sing 

 more incessantly, and in fact I do not recall a species in the Eastern or Middle States 

 that is to be heard as frequently. The males are of course the chief performers, but now 

 and again, near a nest, while watching the birds, I would detect a female singing the 

 same glad song, only more softly. At the earliest day-break and all day long, even 

 when the sun is at its highest, and during the great heat of the afternoon, its very 

 musical whistle is one of the few bird songs that are ever present. 



"From the time of its arrival until July 29 I heard the song daily, even hourly, 

 and during the height of the breeding season often many were singing within hearing 

 at the same time. 



"This has been called 'a desert species,' and most Arizona birds might fall under 

 the same grouping, at times, I suppose, but my experience with it is so very directly 

 to the contrary that a word as to the surroundings of the home of this Oriole, as found 

 by me, will perhaps give a better idea to the reader. 



"There is a canon that begins high up in the Santa Catalinas, and, dividing the 

 hills and table lands on either side of it by its deep furrow, it extends for two miles or 

 more, where it joins the valley of the San Pedro River. It is the upper or more elevated 

 part of this canon with which we have to do, at an altitude varying from four thousand 

 to five thousand feet. The hills on either side are high, the canon generally quite narrow. 

 Live oaks are the trees of the hills and hill-sides, and reach in places to the bed of the 

 canon. Here in parts are groves of cotton-woods and sycamores, and some cedars, 

 and, with the exception of the very bed of the canon, where for a part of the year is a 

 brook, the grass covers the surface of the ground. The brook begins to dry up in its 

 exposed parts early in May, but all summer long there is running water for at least 

 a mile in the cotton-w^ood grove, and in a number of places, even during the driest part 

 of the year, the water rises to the surface, making 'tanks,' as they are called. Along 

 this running water and about the 'tanks,' bird-life is very abundant, and here, surely 

 no desert, is the summer home of many Scott's Orioles. There is very little cactus, and 

 none of the 'chollas' that are so very characteristic of the deserts of the neigh- 

 boring region. 



"After August 7 I missed the song, although the birds were abundant until the 

 10th of that month, and I saw a single bird or so for the following three days. Then 

 I supposed they were all gone, but on the l4th of September, about dusk, I startled 

 one, an adult male, from a yucca where he had evidently gone to roost. He scolded 

 angrily at me from the dead limb of a cedar near by for a few moments, when I left 

 him to go to bed. Again, on the 18th of September, I heard a male in full song, and 

 going closer found a party of four together, three old males and a young one of the 

 year. This is my last note of their occurrence at this point. 



