4 T Heb. (AU DU BIG N] 1B Ue Eee 
Incredible brilliance of crown and underparts, his head aflame with beauty. 
Such confident little birds, intent on their hunting, and silent in marked 
contrast to the persistent chips of the Black Phoebe. I wished I could see 
the fluttering courtship flights and hear the pretty song. 
One day we drove southeast to the Mexican border, mounting from the 
2400 foot elevation of Tucson over “grasslands” where once grew sacaton 
grass “higher than a mule’s back,” but which now, due to over-grazing, are 
mostly bare rocks with a scattering of yucca, ocotillo, palo verde and mes- 
quite. As we crosed the Sonoita Plains at 5000 feet we began to meet 
junipers. The south side of the Santa Ritas was less over-grazed than the 
north; here there was grass, junipers and live oaks. Horned Larks were 
on their territories, multitudes of Vesper and Chipping Sparrows foraged 
near the roadside, and a number of Chestnut-backed Bluebirds flitted from 
one fence post to another. 
At Patagonia (elevation 4500 feet) we followed Sonoita Creek through 
fine stands of great cottonwoods, still leafiess, willows, Arizona ash and 
desert elderberry, a sizeable tree with rich dark green foliage that falls in 
summer but comes out again in December, making this a handsome feature 
of the landscape in many of the regions I visited. Jarilla, Senecio salignus, 
was conspicuous with large yellow blossoms. 
Three incomparable Vermillion Flycatchers gladdened our eyes. Amer- 
ican Ravens croaked, Arizona Jays called wheenk, three Bush Tits gave 
their lisping notes. I was glad to see a Rocky Mountain Orange-crowned 
Warbler, noticeably more yellow than the eastern form I had known so well 
in Oklahoma; this bird even showed us its orange crown. Dr. Phillips 
called a Screech Owl from her hole and she kept calling and calling in her 
quavering voice; he said female’s voices were higher pitched than males’. 
It was a treat to watch a Road-runner hunting at ease; it raised and low- 
ered its crest and lifted its great tail and tilted it forward over its back. 
The best find for me was an Acorn-eating Woodpecker, most amazingly 
marked on the head with red, black and white. 
I wished I could come here later in the season for Dr. Phillips told me 
that the summer birds in these woods include Mexican Goshawks, Broad- 
billed and Black-chinned Hummingbirds, Cassin’s Kingbirds, four fly- 
catchers—Arizona Crested, Ash-throated, Olivaceous and Beardless—Hooded 
Orioles, Cooper’s Tanagers, Yellow and Lucy’s Warblers and multitudes of 
Long-tailed Chats. 
We continued to Nogales, where we explored a bit of Mexico without 
much profit, but had a very pleasant visit with Mr. Fred Dille, veteran 
ornithologist, OOlogist and bibliophile. All the region from Patagonia to 
Nogales is severely over-grazed, the soil impoverished and eroding. Little 
but cactus and mesquite grow on most of the hills and mountains that once 
were good grazing country. As around Tucson, many great cottonwoods 
are dead because of the lowering of the water table. Why did Linnaeus 
ever call man Homo sapiens? 
We had explored the desert and the grasslands; the mountains showed 
a different picture. We did not visit the Tucsons that rise to only 4000 to 
