THE YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. 199 
clear syllables that sound like the tinkling of a bell. When meal 
time comes around, he goes off, and forages with other Benedicts 
about the marsh, paying, I suspect, little attention to his mate, 
although should she be disturbed from the nest, her cries of dis- 
tress soon bring him back. It is not likely that he brings any 
food home; and while she is setting, she gets anything to eat that 
she goes after herself. 
These were among the few birds 1 saw in the arid regions about 
Jacob’s Well and Navajo Springs, on the confines of New Mexico 
and Arizona. This was in July; some were birds of the year in 
their first plumage, and the rest were all moulting. There were 
some in a marsh near Fort Whipple, but not to be compared in 
numbers with the vast hordes of Brewer’s and Redwinged Black- 
birds that live there. In this latter locality there were more of 
them between April and October than during the rest of the year. 
Such a mountainous region as that about Fort Whipple is not 
exactly to its liking; although, like the true Agel@i, it gathers 
in marshes to breed, it is emphatically a prairie bird, delighting in 
broad, open, dry land. It is more decidedly terrestrial than most 
of its allies, and spends the greater part of its time on the ground. 
Compared in this respect with the Redwinged Blackbird and the 
Quiscali, it bears much the same relation to these that the species 
of Harporhynchus—the Thrasher, for instance—do to the true 
Mocking-birds. It is admirably adapted for a terrestrial life by its 
long and strong feet; on the ground, it usually walks or runs, but 
frequently hops along, like Insessores in general. In its mode of 
flight it closely resembles its many allies; and like these may 
be called omnivorous, although various seeds probably form the 
greater part of its 
Jacob’s Well, that I Treitos just now, is a queer piii and 
one always associated in my mind with these birds. Here is what 
I find in my note-book about it :— 
“ July 8.—We read of the delightful and equable climate of New 
Mexico; but we live and learn. Last night we shivered under 
blankets, and blew our numb fingers this morning. By ten o "clock 
it was hot; at eleven, hotter; twelve, it was as hot as—it 
be. The cold nights stiffen our bones, and the hot days blister 
our noses, crack our lips and bring our eye-balls to a stand-still. 
To-day we have traversed a sandy desert; no water last night for 
our worn-out animals, and very little grass. The ‘sand-storms’ 
