261 
Dr. E. Coues .—From Arizona to the Pacific. 
south-west corner of Arizona, and in returning after a few days 
spent at Fort Yuma. We were on the little steamer f Cocopah / 
and by a singular coincidence her commander, Captain Robinson, 
was the man who twelve years before had piloted Lieutenant 
J. C. Ives and his party in the ‘ Explorer/ the first steamboat 
that ever passed over the shores and rapids of this difficult 
river. 
Sayornis nigricans , a common species throughout Southern 
Arizona, was perhaps, among the land birds, our most constant 
companion. Perched, generally in pairs, upon the dense ver¬ 
dure that in many places overhangs the river, it pursued its 
constant vocation of securing the vagrant insects around it, ever 
uttering its peculiar unmelodious notes. In all its motions the 
Pewee of the Eastern States was unmistakeably reproduced. It 
was, for a Flycather, rather shy and wary, which fact, joined 
with the almost impassable nature of the thickets, is my only 
and lame excuse for its absence from my collection. It is not, 
apparently, a hardy bird, and I never saw it, even in summer, 
about the Whipple mountains, though in the southern portions, 
both of Arizona and California, it remains throughout the winter. 
River-bottoms are but one of its resorts. Like S. fuscus, and 
extremely unlike S, sayus , it also delights in deep mountain- 
gorges and precipitous canons } through which little streams may 
flow, where upon a jutting bit of rock, or on the bare, flat sand, 
it unites its sharp cries with the queer ringing laugh trilled out 
by its neighbour and friend the little Cat herpes mexicanus. 
Often when breaking a toilsome way through next to im¬ 
passable thickets, I was startled by a loud, clear, sharp chirp, de¬ 
cidedly Fringilline, but far more powerful than usual. It was 
the alarm-note of Pipilo aberti, which everywhere in the valley 
is a most characteristic bird. Fort Yuma seemed to be its 
headquarters. A retiring species, like all its congeners, it 
keeps perseveringly in the most provoking undergrowth, and 
would rarely find its way into collections were it not so 
common. It seems to me more decidedly gregarious than 
most of the genus, often collecting in flocks of a dozen or 
more, wandering restlessly, yet in a cautious and subdued manner, 
through the thickets. Associating freely with this species is 
