March, ?9o5 [ 39 Breeding Notes from New Mexico a BY FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY O UR Biological Survey work in New Mexico in x9o4 took us into the high Rockies during the latter part of the arian breeding season. Between 95oo feet, at the lower edge of the Canadian zone and x2,7oo feet at the upper edge of the HudsonJan zone, amonff the birds that we found feeding young during the last week in July and the first week in August were such species as Picoides a. dorsalis, lffmpido?ax d?]Jiqilis, Zonolrichia le?cophrys, fz?nco caniceps, lospiza lincolni, ]?iranga lttdoviciana, Tachycinela t. lepida, Vireo g. swain- soni, Dendroica auduboni, ,4nlhus pensilva?zicus, A/[yadesles lownsendi, lrfylocichla auduboni, and Merula m.propnqua. ?inicola e. mo?tla?ta was doubtless also of the number as the throat of one shot was stuffed out with small seeds and insects ap- parently collected for its young. The glacial amphitheater at the foot of Wheeler Peak was richly populated with the mountain-loving white crowns or striped-heads, as tile Indians of the region aptly call them. I'he wilh?ws in the bottonl of the amphitheater above the high water level of the lake were full of them and they were common up to timber- line. The only nest that we found was in a spruce bush at our ?x.4oo foot camp, but young were being fed all about us. The sparrows might have been taken for flycatchers by a novice, for they were constantly springing up in the air in pursuit of insects. So eager was their chase that they not only flew into the air but actu- ally ran down into the water after insects. This we discovered one morning on visiting the lake. The white crowns, in company with Lincoln sparrows, were busily flying back and forth from the willows to the edge of the lake. hopping out onto the stones and wading into the water. We were puzzled at first to know what they were about, but on looking closely saw that the bottom of tile lake and the stones along the edge were covered with the sandy tubes of caddice fly larvae from which the flies with their long .wings were rapidly emerging. As the caddice flies came out of their cases tile birds snapped them up eagerly, flying off with them to their nests. When the hatching process was too slow the sparrows flew up into the air after those that had escaped them. Other species of birds were equally busy, the violet greens, western flycatch- ers, Audubon warblers, and solitaires, in flycatching; the three-toed woodpeckers in digging out wood-boring larvae for their hungry broods. But while the sum- ruer resident birds were thus absorbed with their young families, the resident early breeders had not altogether set their young adrift. The handsome black and white nutcrackers (IVucifra?a columbiana) were flying back and forth hunting for insects on the slopes above timberline, and although March and April seem to cover their normal breeding period, the insistant and comparatively weak voices of inlmature birds were heard as late as the last of luly. One bird of the year which came to camp on July 27 was still under the active guardianship of its parent and was seen fluttering its wings for food, though the hint was ignored. A young Rocky Mountain jay (?erisoreus c. capilalis) was also seen fluttering its wings on July 26. Indeed, when our calnp in the spruces was first discovered by a pair of these friendly birds--on July 2o?after testing our camp biscuits they flew off, to return promptly with one of their grown brood, readily distinguished a Published with the permission of Dr, C. Hart Merriam, Chief of U. S, Biological Survey.
