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44 THE CONDOR Vol. XlII bed filled with rich deciduous trees and shrubs in which live many birds and mam- mals unknown to the desert above. This had been the case at one of our earlier camps where cactuses so filled the spaces between junipers that it was hard to escape them, branches of Opuntia arborescens pricking you admonishingly on the shoulder as you passed, low white-spined prickly pear sticking needles in your boots, eng?elmanni lending spines for your leggins, and Airammalarias adding many a stinging touch; while cactus flowers in red, yellow, and magenta offered their glowing tribute along the way. In the canyon that cut through, this cactus desert were willows, fresh green cottonwoods, trees draped in woodbine and grape- vine--the grapevine adding a fragrant breath--a patch of cat-tails, clusters of bril- liant yellow flowers, delicate white cliff roses and--a pair of eastern Phoebes nesting in a niche over one of the numerous water pools! At Mesa Pajarito at the time of our visit--June 1903--Ash-throated Fly- catchers, Woodhouse Jays, Vireos, and Bush-tits, characteristic birds of the juniper country or Upper Sonoran zone, were abundant; while a Roadrunner, being kept in countenance by some mesquite of the Lower Sonoran zone was seen near the top of the cliff. A young family of the delightful Desert Sparrows-had just left their nest in a juniper and were being fed by their handsome black-throated parents near 'by, while an irrepressible brood of Rock Wrens after several alarming encounters with the strangers were led out of sight down a cut bank by their sagacious mother. Blue Crows, the young with only half-grown tails, passing in blue waves through camp were enough to give life and color to the grayest day. Confiding Mourning Doves walked about near the tents, the male showing his beautiful plum- like bloom to great advantage when he puffed out his throat in cooing to his demure brown mate. A variety of other birds swelled the list, but most in evidence in the amphi- theater were the Mockingbirds. There must have been half a dozen pairs, one of which was feeding young in a nest in a cactus close to camp, a nest well protected by its own thorny sticks as well as its thorny supporting branches. A Mocker who sang vociferously until silenced by the third day of rain, was the best mimic I ever heard--he kept me running out of the tent to see familiar birds who were not there. At dark when stentorian Mockingbirds stopped singing, doubtless because they couldn't keep awake any longer, the Poorwills with quiet voices well suited to the evening stillness began to call from the shadows, poor-wil'-low, poor-wil'- low; and when the darkness of night had silenced them, their places were taken by the Great Horned Owls which in deep-voiced, sonorous tones hooted solemnly to each other from the caverns of the rocky wall. The next day to onr surprise we heard the Poor-will, the bird of dusk and dawn, calling at intervals while the sun was shining; but it was probably waked at these unseemly hours by the unaccus- tomed jangle of the horse bell, for after that it was heard only at its own proper concert hours. The four hundred foot cliffs of the Llano attracted Cliff Swallows, Sparrow Hawks, Ravens, Eagles, Horned Owls, and Buzzards. Sparrow Hawks were seen from camp feeding young out of the nest, and in climbing the cliff Mr. Bailey found an old three-story eagle's nest, and also a raven's nest from which the young had recently flown. The eagle's nest, on a ledge of the sandstone cliff facing camp, was a massive structure three or four feet high, at least three nests being built one above the other. The ground beneath it told an interesting story. Numerous ejected pellets of rabbit fur, and a variety of small bones strewed the earth. The bones--jaws, skulls, and thigh bones--after critical examination were pronounced those of prairie dog, gopher, jack rabbit and cottontail--rabbit predominating.