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5000 feet and thus are in the Lower Sonoran zone, but the Catalinas and 
Santa Ritas reach over 9000 feet. First Dr. Phillips drove me to Sabino 
Canyon in the Catalinas which were glorified with a new snow fall. Along 
the Rillito a number of cottonwoods were loaded with great bunches of 
mistletoe, Phoradendron macrophyllum, much like our eastern variety. Up 
the canyon Arizona ashes were just budding out, while the yellow green of 
the cottonwoods gave the brightest color. Arizona sycamores stood as if 
sculptured in marble. Everywhere on the slopes were the amazing’ saguaros 
in gaunt, fantastic shapes. 
Birds were picking up crumbs from the picnic grounds: Canyon and 
Spotted Towhees and many wintering native sparrows, among them an 
ashy-colored Fox Sparrow, plenty of Oregon Juncos and one Pink-sided, 
and, brand-new to me, a Black-chinned Sparrow that, without a black chin, 
with grey head, pink bill and striped back looked like a cross between a 
junco and a chipping sparrow. There were handsome Arizona Jays, a 
Ladder-backed Woodpecker, a musical Curve-billed Thrasher, and no less 
than four species of wrens—Cactus, Bewick’s, Rock and Canyon. 
Down in the foothills we found among the saguaros a pair of Gilded 
Flickers “with the head of the Red-shafted Flicker and the body of the 
Yellow-shafted.”* Several fearless Desert Sparrows worked ameng the 
bunches of grass. My first Phainopepla was a thrilling sight, a male flying 
directly over us, his white wing patches flashing through the black. Later 
we saw another male and a female perched on mesquite trees some distance 
apart; underneath them were large piles of droppings, for these birds feed 
largely on the berries of the leafless mistletoe and keep to favorite perches. 
Mr. and Mrs. Anders Anderson live to the north of Tucson with a 
splendid view of the Catalina Mountains; their land is largely in the 
original with creosote bush and cholla cactus, and it is here that they have 
made a notable study of color-banded Cactus Wrens. One day they took 
me through three life zones. First we visited the desert on Wilmot Road 
and this time we found the Rufous-winged Sparrows. They were tame as 
they busily fed under cat-claw and desert broom, letting us see their plain 
breasts, brownish caps with median line, characteristic facial markings and 
just a hint of the rufous shoulder. Mrs. Anderson showed me the nest she 
had discovered last July, a deep structure two and a half feet up in a 
desert hackberry. 
Up and up we drove on the Soldier Trail toward Mount Lemmon, pass- 
ing through the Lower Sonoran zone with its saguaros, agaves, ocotillo and 
bur sage, Franseria deltoidea. At about 4500 feet we reached the Upper 
Sonoran with its beautiful live oaks, Emory oak and Mexican blue oak, 
sycamores, ash, alligator-bark juniper, bear grass, sotol and, to my great 
delight, manzanita, with its crooked deep red branches and exquisite pink 
bell-shaped flowers. 
On and on, winding about in this strange wild country we drove through 
Mexican pinon and graceful Arizona cypress till we reached Upper Bear 
*Roger T. Peterson, Field Guide to Western Birds, 1941, Houghton, Boston. 
