158 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVIII 
placed made an uncertain climb unwise, and we could not pick out any nest 
that looked sure. Lunch time had long passed without our notice, it was now 
four o’clock, and we were six miles from camp. We ate our biscuits and 
started back. Another Arizona Cardinal was heard calling and its nest in a 
grapevine-covered hackberry yielded three more treasures. By six we were 
back in camp, and after supper we hit upon a plan by which Chrisman was to 
go to Reddington, some twelve miles down the canyon, on the San Pedro 
river, for hay and grain for his two horses, and chuck for the three of us, 
enough for five days. We planned to go across the foothills into another 
canyon, and then on to the summit of the range, three days to go, one on top, 
and then one to return by a shorter, steeper trail. 
While Chrisman was gone the next day we hunted as before, though with 
rather poor success, as we found but one nest each of Gray Vireo and Arizona 
Cardinal. We met Chrisman about four miles down the canyon as he came 
back with his load, and returned with him to get our traps ready for an early 
start the next day. Our program was for Howard and myself to hunt as we 
went along, leaving the horses and camp to Chrisman. It was some twelve 
miles to our first camp. The extremely dry season made it necessary to pack 
both hay and grain for the horses, making with our bed roll and grub quite 
a load for each of the two, big animals which were Chrisman ’s pride. 
The day was barren of oological results. We made our camp near an 
old adobe cabin where there was a good stream of water, and were on the 
road again before six the next morning. A short distance above camp stood 
a lone cottonwood with a large stick nest near its top. As we approached a 
Zone-tail left the nest and flew screaming away. I strapped on the climbers, 
and was not long in reaching the nest, some sixty feet from the ground. It 
contained two plain white eggs, incubation far advanced. The canyon we 
were now in was quite barren. Scrub oaks and other brush, with a few 
chollas and Spanish bayonet interspersed, offered few nesting sites. One 
cholla was found to contain a nest with three eggs of the Palmer Thrasher. 
Eight miles above our previous night’s camp we struck into the trail and fol- 
lowed it over a low ridge into another canyon. Here we found our guide 
preparing lunch. While he finished his preparations I made a quick search 
of the oak brush near by and found another nest of Arizona Cardinal. Our 
next camp was ten long miles up this canyon, over a steep rough trail. We 
were able to hunt but little and located only a nest of Phainopepla with incom- 
plete clutch. 
It was after seven o’clock when we approached our destination. A tall 
slender cottonwood stood close to a high cliff and held at its top a typical 
Buteo’s nest, from which flew Madam Zone-tail in response to a well aimed 
stone. It was too late for a climb then so we put it off for the morrow. After 
a supper of jerky stew and frying pan bread, both delicious as prepared by our 
chef, we lay under the branches of a giant sycamore and listened to the whim- 
pering of some Pigmy Owls in a nearby oak. Various other night noises 
reminded us of our bed on the sand a few nights before, but our comfortable 
blankets gratefully reassured us that we were not to repeat that experience. 
We were up early again the next morning and investigated the oak where 
he had heard the Pigmy Owls, but found nothing. Various other trees with 
holes in them were examined with no better results, so we turned our attention 
to breakfast and after finishing it, helped Chrisman pack up and start, as we 
