July, 1916 ON BICYCLE AND AFOOT IN THE SANTA CATALINA MTS. 
157 
burned the length of the sapling and was about out. The sand was as hard as 
adamant. Too cold to lie still, we slipped on our shoes and hunted up some 
more wood. By the light of the fire we saw that the time was 2 a. m., so we tried 
to sleep again, and between dozes gathered more wood. At 4:30 we gave it 
up and began our second day with our other can of beans and crackers two. 
An hour’s walk farther down the canyon brought us to its junction with 
the one wherein lay the camp which was our destination. Up this canyon we 
went, paying little attention to the birds as we went. We found two nests of 
the Costa Hummingbird in low-hanging branches of sycamores, saw a pair of 
Western Gnatcatchers building in an old half-dead oak, and heard the song 
of several Gray Vireos in the haekberry trees which made a scattered fringe 
to the canyon bottom. About 10:30 we sighted the camp, and were soon talk- 
ing to one of the owners. At the first word about dinner we eagerly offered 
our services as assistants. Frijoles, baking powder bread, dried apple sauce, 
and potatoes, backed by a huge pot of coffee, — how good they looked on the 
table. We could hardly restrain ourselves until the big chief, Foran, arrived, 
covered with muck from his prospect hole. A short rest after dinner and we 
climbed the hill with Foran to look at his prospect. Then we started pros- 
pecting on our own hook along the canyon bed. “Look here”, said Howard, 
and T turned around and saw, not three feet from me, a beautiful Gray Yireo 
( Vireo vicinior) on her nest, hung from the lower branch of a mesquite. She 
sat very close for a few moments and then slipped off, revealing three white 
eggs. No other finds rewarded our search that day, but birds were present 
and the prospect promised great things to come. At the supper table we found 
Morris Chrisman, prospector, trapper and entomologist. His tents were near 
by, and his generous supply of blankets, spread under the moonlit sky, was 
a welcome change from our hard, cold couch of the previous night. 
It was sunrise before we awoke. We were through breakfast by 6:30 and, 
with some biscuits in our pockets started down the canyon looking for Zone- 
tailed Hawks and Gray Yireos. Several nests of White-winged Doves were 
seen but not disturbed. Two more sets of Costa Hummer were found in sim- 
ilar situations to those of the day before. We heard some Arizona Cardinals 
(C ardinalis cardinalis superbus), and I located a nest at the extreme top of 
a haekberry covered with a grapevine. With some difficulty I secured it and 
the set of three fresh eggs it contained, the female scolding me well and stay- 
ing close by. While I was thus engaged Howard wandered off and soon 
called that he had found another Gray Vireo, in a haekberry this time. He 
had secured it by the time I was down, and we packed the two sets with feel- 
ings of elation. Lucy Warblers (Vermivora luciae) were heard singing on all 
sides, and our next find was a nest of this species with four fresh eggs, in a 
natural cavity in a small stump. Farther down the canyon we passed an 
immense cottonwood from which Howard had collected a set of Zone-tailed 
Hawk ( Buteo abbreviatus) , after a daring feat of rope climbing. Below this 
a group of eight tall cottonwoods stood on guard at the opening of a narrow 
place in the canyon. Old nests of sticks in their lower crotches were almost 
beyond the reach of our best thrown stones. I hesitate to guess at the height 
of these giants but know that they were well over a hundred feet tall. I shall 
visit them again some day and take their measure and their pictures. 
Below here some screaming Zone-tails kept us busy throwing stones at 
various nests, but the immense size of the cottonwoods wherein they were 
