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ABSTRACT 


OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 


EINNAZAN SOCIETY 


OF 


NEW YORK, 


FOR THE YEAR ENDING MARCH 14, 1916. 


Turis is the twenty-eighth in the series of Abstracts published 
by the Linnzan Society of New York, and, like the preceding 
issues, Is prepared mainly as a brief review of the work of the 
Society during the year closing with the date indicated above. 
Papers presented before the Society and published elsewhere 
(often enlarged or otherwise different in form) are mentioned 
with proper reference to the place of publication. 

March 23, 1915.—The President in the chair. Fourteen 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Chubb, Cleaves, Granger, 
Hix, Hollister, Hubbell, J. M. Johnson, Kieran, Marks, 
Nichols, Rogers, Taubenhaus and Weber) and twenty-two 
visitors present. 

The name of Mr. Francis Harper, of the Brooklyn Museum, 
was proposed by Dr. Dwight for Resident Membership; it 
was referred to the Membership Committee. 

The President appointed, to serve for the ensuing year, 
standing committees as follows: 

Publication, Messrs. Rogers, Nichols and J. M. Johnson. 

Papers and Lectures, Messrs. Granger, Murphy and Rogers. 

Nominations, Messrs. J. M. Johnson, Hubbell and Weber. 

Finance, Messrs. Woodruff, Granger and Weber. 

Bird-Banding, Messrs. Cleaves, Nichols and Rogers. 

i 


‘2 


Mr. Cleaves recorded at Princes Bay, 8. I., March 13, Spring 
Peepers (Hyla crucifer) in song; and a Woodcock (Philohela 
minor), three Wilson’s Snipe (Gallinago delicata) and three 
Killdeer (Oxyechus vociferus) there on the twenty-first. 

Further discussion of the migration showed that owing to 
the long-continued cool weather and northwest wind com- . 
paratively few migrants had arrived. Song Sparrows (Me- 
lospiza m. melodia), Robins (Planesticus m. migratorius) and 
Bluebirds (Sialia s. sialis) were still only locally common and 
no Phcebe (Sayornis phebe) had been seen. 

Mr. Rogers reported that on March 21 he and Mr. J. M. 
Johnson had found a Barn Owl (Aluco pratincola) at Teaneck, 
N. J., roosting not in the Phelps ruins but in a small pine grove 
adjoining. But few rods away in the same grove was a Barred 
Owl (Strix v. varia). The quantities of pellets, etc., indicated 
that both roosting sites were in regular use. The Barred Owl 
was in addition to two found at the well-known roost a half- 
mile to the east. 

Mr. Carl E. Akeley presented the paper of the evening, “‘ The 
African Elephant.” Mr. Akeley, illustrating his talk with 
lantern-slides, gave a detailed account of many of the habits 
of this species (Loxodonta africana) and of some of his ex- 
periences with it, for in his many years of hunting in Africa 
a great part of his time had been devoted to following, study- 
ing, photographing and collecting this largest of terrestrial 
animals. 

April 13, 1915.—The President in the chair. Fourteen 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Cleaves, Harper, Heller, 
Hix, Hollister, Hubbell, F. W. Hyde, J. M. Johnson, Marks, 
Pangburn, Rogers, Taubenhaus and Weber) and three visitors 
present. 

Mr. Francis Harper, whose name had been proposed at the 
preceding meeting, was elected to Resident Membership. 

Mr. Harper told of the finding of a Great Horned Owl (Bubo 
v. virginianus) nest by Dr. Overton at Patchogue, L. I., and 
how Dr. Overton had been severely clawed about the head 
and shoulder by the defending Owl. He had secured several 
excellent photographs of the bird, which Mr. Harper exhibited. 


3 


Mr. Johnson stated that he had seen what he believed to be 
four Fish Crows (Corvus ossifragus) at Greenfield, Mass., 
April 2. He had repeatedly heard their call, with which he is 
familiar, uttered in ordinary flight. 

Mr. Hubbell and Mr. Marks spoke of birds they had seen 
recently at Greenwich, Conn., and Putney, Vt., respectively. 
The most interesting occurrence was the whistling of a Bob- 
white (Colinus v. virginianus) at Greenwich as early as April 
11; Mr. Hubbell said he had rarely heard one before May. 

Discussion of the migration showed that in the continued 
cool weather culminating in the-10-inch snowfall of April 4 
few birds arrived, but there was a big wave in the ensuing 
warm week, so that by Sunday the 12th the migration was 
about up to schedule, or even (as in the case of three Towhees 
(Pipilo e. erythrophthalmus) seen in Central Park on the 12th 
by Mr. Hix) a bit ahead. 

Mr. Weber told of the cutting of a patch of timber above 
Palisades Park, N. J., last summer, and how quickly certain 
birds not previously seen above the valley had appeared there, 
as Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum australis) 
and Yellow Warbler (Dendroica e@. estiva) last autumn and 
Vesper (Poecetes g. gramineus) and Chipping (Spizella p. 
passerina) Sparrows already this spring. 

Mr. Harper described a habit he had noticed in Loons 
(Gavia immer) and American and Red-breasted Mergansers 
(Mergus americanus and M. serrator) in Saskatchewan and 
Mackenzie last summer. A bird on the water would immerse 
its face just enough to put its eyes below the surface and fre- 
quently follow this action with a dive, so that Mr. Harper 
supposed that it was doing this in order to avoid the surface 
reflection and ripples in looking for fish. 

Mr. Rogers reported the safe arrival in New York of Mr. 
James P. Chapin, who had been absent nearly six years on the 
American Museum’s expedition to the Belgian Congo. The 
expedition had collected everything from insects to anthro- 
pological material. Mr. Chapin had brought home about a 
quarter of the whole, including hundreds of small mammals 
and nearly all of the six thousand birds, some new to science. 


4 


Mr. Rogers showed several skins and called attention to how 
beautifully they were made up and to the fulness of the data. 

Mr. Harper introduced Mr. H. M. Laing, of Manitoba, and 
Mr. Laing passed around a large number of splendid photo- 
graphs, taken by him in recent years of Sandhill Cranes (Grus 
mexicana), Sharp-tailed Grouse (Pediecetes p. phasianellus)— 
some dancing, and clouds of Snow Geese (Chen). 

Mr. Taubenhaus exhibited a live Rattlesnake (Crotalus 
horridus) he had had for some months in captivity, and 
allowed the members to handle and examine it, as much as 
they desired. He told of several places within fifty miles of 
the City, notably the Ramapo district and Newfoundland, 
N.J., where Rattlers were still to be found, and described many 
interesting features of the structure and habits of the species 
which he had noted in several years’ observations. 

April 27, 1915.—The Vice-President in the chair. Nine 
members (Messrs. Cleaves, Davis, Harper, Hix, J. M. Johnson, 
LaDow, Marks, Pangburn and Rogers) and eleven visitors 
present. 

Mr. LaDow reported four Canada Geese (Branta c. cana- 
densis) seen by him and Mr. Lenssen on the Overpeck Creek 
in the Englewood Region on April 25. 

Mr. Davis said that he had seen on the 25th on Long Island, 
north of West Hills, a Chipping Sparrow (Spizella p. passerina) 
with the head entirely white and that a resident had told him 
of seeing the same bird last summer. Mr. Davis also showed 
a photograph of a Great Horned Owl (Bubo v. virginianus) 
kept in captivity in that vicinity; the bird had been taken 
young in 1910 and was said never to drink. 

Mr. Johnson had visited the owl grove at the Phelps Ruins 
near Teaneck, N. J., on April 24 and 25. On the 24th he saw 
the Barn Owl (Aluco pratincola) in the tree where he had last 
seen the Barred Owl (Strix v. varia), but saw no Barred, and 
next day he saw the Barred Owl in the Barn Owl’s former 
tree, but saw no Barn. He had also seen a pair of Wood Ducks 
(Aix sponsa) in swampy woods near West Englewood on the 
25th and heard a Louisiana Waterthrush (Seiwrus motacilla) 
give a whisper song. The bird was on the ground and the 


5 


song carried but four or five rods and was much longer and 
more elaborate than the usual one. 

Mr. Rogers recorded an early Solitary Sandpiper (Helo- 
dromas s. solitarius) seen by Mr. W. DeW. Miller, Mr. J. M. 
Johnson and himself along the Dead River, a tributary of the 
Passaic, April 18. Later in the day the party visited a Great 
Horned Owl (Bubo v. virginianus) nest on the Third Watchung 
Mountain near Mt. Horeb and found the one remaining young 
bird perched near the ground a few yards from the nest. That 
it had flown at this date meant that the eggs must have been 
laid about February 20. 

Mr. Alanson Skinner was the speaker of the evening, and 
his title was, ‘‘In my Grandfather’s Wigwam.”’ He had been 
adopted by a chief of the Menominee tribe of Indians and had 
spent many weeks with the tribe and had heard great numbers 
of the stories told in front of the fire in his grandfather’s, or, 
more correctly speaking, his uncle’s lodge, and others. He now 
gave the Society a selection of these stories, told Indian fashion, 
and chosen especially from those relating to birds and other 
animals. 

May 11, 1915.—The Vice-President in the chair. Thirteen 
members (Messrs. Cleaves, Fleischer, Harper, Hix, Hollister, 
F. W. Hyde, J. M. Johnson, Lemmon, Marks, Pangburn, 
Rogers, Taubenhaus and Weber) and two visitors present. 

The Secretary read the report of the Auditing Committee, 
that they had examined and found correct as stated the 
Treasurer’s Report for 191415. 

Mr. Weber reported that he had received a Puffin (Frater- 
cula a. arctica) that had recently been picked up, some weeks 
dead, on the beach at Montauk, L. I. Mr. Weber himself 
had on the morning of the meeting collected at Palisades 
Park, N. J., a male Black-throated Blue Warbler (Dendroica 
cerulescens) with even more black on its back than typical 
cairnsi. Hesaid that he had one or two others in his collection 
that from their color would be referable to the southern form. 

Mr. Pangburn recorded from New Haven, Conn., a male and 
a female Tennessee Warbler (Vermivora peregrina) May 8 and 
a male the following day. 


6 


Mr. Fleischer told of watching at Northport, L. I., on April 1, 
the attempt of a Herring Gull (Larus a. argentatus) to rob a 
Loon (Gavia immer). The Gull was darting at the Loon, 
which was on the water and had a fish in its bill. The latter 
bird dived repeatedly till the Gull gave up and went away, 
then swallowed the fish. 

Mr. Johnson recorded an eagle, most probably a young Bald 
Eagle (Halicetus 1. leucocephalus), flying over the Leonia, N. J., 
marshes, May 2. 

Mr. Hix reported Greater Yellowlegs (Totanus melano- 
leucus) at Englewood May 8 and a flock of nine in Central 
Park next day. He said that American Goldfinches (Asétra- 
gallinus t. tristis) were unusually common in Central Park 
this spring and that a Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus v. varius) was 
still present May 10. 

Mr. Rogers said that he and Mr. Marks had seen a flock of 
seven Canada Geese (Branta c. canadensis) at Lyde Park, 
near Westfield, N. J., May 2; they were flying over rather 
low and disappeared to the southeastward. 

Mr. Fleischer told of the breeding of Black Ducks (Anas 
rubripes) in Prospect Park the past two years and stated that 
more birds were in the flock this spring. 

Mr. Weber gave a brief account of studies he had made at 
different times of young chickens (Gallus gallus, domestic) 
and turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo, domestic). He had come 
to the conclusion that most of their conduct was the result of 
instinct and that they learned very little by imitation or other- 
wise from their parents. 

Mr. Rogers raised the question of abbreviations in field 
notebooks and explained the list of those used by himself. 
Considerable discussion followed. 

May 25, 1915——The Treasurer in the chair. Fourteen 
members (Messrs. Chapin, Cleaves, Fleischer, Granger, 
Harper, Hix, Hollister, LaDow, Lemmon, Marks, Pangburn, 
Rogers, Taubenhaus and Woodruff) and twenty-one visitors 
present. 

Mr. Hix reported Myrtle Warblers (Dendroica coronata) 
still in Central Park May 24, and Mr. Rogers a White-throated 


t 


(Zonotrichia albicollis) and a Swamp (Melospiza georgiana) 
Sparrow May 25. 

The rainy weather on Sunday, May 16 (it showered much 
of the morning), coupled with the fact that that day was not 
so much the height of the big wave as was the corresponding 
Sunday last year, kept down the number of species seen by 
members on the annual try for a big list. Mr. Hix said that 
he and Mr. Edward Desvernine in seven hours in the field in 
the Dead River district, N. J., had noted 74 species, including 
Greater Yellowlegs (Totanus melanoleucus), White-crowned 
Sparrow (Zonotrichia l. leucophrys), two Lincoln’s Sparrows 
(Melospiza |. lincolni) and a Cape May Warbler (Dendroica 
tigrina). Mr. Rogers said that he and Mr. W. DeW. Miller 
had put in seventeen hours in the Watchung Mountains and 
Passaic Valley north of Plainfield and had noted 89* fully 
identified species as against 104 on little more than the same 
route last year. Oddly enough, their list of Mniotiltide con- 
sisted of the same 24 species each year. Among their less 
usual birds this year were a flock of seven Least Sandpipers 
(Pisobia minutilla), three Lincoln’s Sparrows, a singing male 
Tennessee Warbler (Vermivora peregrina) and seven Cape 
May Warblers, some in song. 

Mr. Howard H. Cleaves gave a talk on “Emotion in Birds 
as a Means to Photography,” in which he illustrated with 
many lantern-slides the ways in which birds’ love of offspring, 
curiosity, hunger, etc., could be taken advantage of by the 
clever photographer. 

Mr. Charles H. Rogers showed a series of lantern-slides of 
Costa Rican birds, from drawings by Fuertes and others, 
from mounted specimens and from life, and gave notes on 
their habits and other points observed by him on a trip made 
L912. 

October 12, 1915——The President in the chair. Eight 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Chapin, Fleischer, Harper, 
Hix, Hollister, Marks and Rogers) and a visitor present. 

Mr. Fleischer mentioned seeing an adult European Goldfinch 


*See ‘Plainfield, New Jersey, Bird Census,’”’ Wilson Bulletin, 1915, 
403-407. 


8 


(Carduelis carduelis) in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, May 27, but 
perhaps rather a recently escaped cage-bird than a descendant 
of the former colony. 

Mr. Rogers said he had found a singing Alder Flycatcher 
(Empidonaz trailli alnorum) in a typical locality for the species 
in Van Cortland Park May 30, indicating, probably, a breeding 
pair. He also told of an Acadian Flycatcher (E. virescens) 
near Crosswicks, N. J., so tame that at his first visit she 
returned to her nest and settled on her eggs while his face was 
within a foot. 

Mr. Hollister reported both Common (Sterna hirundo) and 
Roseate (S. dougallz) Terns present at Easthampton, L. I., 
all summer, though he knew of no nesting ground in the 
vicinity. 

Several observers spoke of birds as being unusually plentiful 
this autumn. Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus v. varius) and Red- 
breasted Nuthatches (Sztta canadensis) have both been com- 
mon. Mr. J. M. Johnson, Mr. Nichols and Mr. Rogers had 
listed 63 species about Englewood October 10, including three 
Tennessee Warblers (Vermivora peregrina). Mr. Hix and two 
friends had seen 52 species about Millington, N. J., the day 
of the meeting, including a Tennessee Warbler, an adult male 
Cape May Warbler (Dendroica tigrina) and three Turkey 
Vultures (Cathartes aura septentrionalis). Mr. Fleischer and 
Mr. Johnson had noted 40 species, including a Yellow-billed 
Cuckoo (Coccyzus a. americanus), in Prospect Park that morn- 
ing. On the other hand, Mr. Fleischer and others had found 
the smaller shorebirds much less than usually common on 
the south shore of Long Island. 

Mr. Harper recorded a male Golden Plover (Charadrius d. 
dominicus) collected October 3 on Jamaica Bay by Mr. Rock- 
well of the Brooklyn Museum. 

October 26, 1915.—The President in the chair. Seventeen 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Cleaves, Fleischer, Harper, 
Heller, Hix, Hollister, F. W. Hyde, J. M. Johnson, Kieran, 
LaDow, Marks, Murphy, Nichols, Rogers, Weber and Wood- 
ruff) and 28 visitors present. 

The more interesting of the local records reported follow: 


9 


a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura septentrionalis) in Orange 
County, N. Y., October 23 (Johnson), a pair of Piping Plover 
(Agialitis meloda) at Long Beach, L. I., October 17 (Fleischer), 
Meadowlarks (Sturnella m. magna) in Central Park October 
23-25 (Hix). 

Mr. Nichols exhibited a living Tiger Salamander (Amby- 
stoma), an unusually fine specimen, recently sent him from 
Patchogue, L. I., by Dr. Frank Overton. 

The first speaker of the evening was Mr. J. M. Johnson, 
whose title was, ‘‘Some Colorado Birds.’”? The speaker had 
spent much of the previous summer in Estes Park and now told 
of many of the birds most interesting to an Easterner, telling 
what he had noted of their appearance in comparison with 
their eastern relatives, their habits, calls and songs. The talk 
was illustrated with skins of most of the birds described and 
with photographs of the country and of some of the smaller 
mammals and birds, the latter including two Rocky Mountain 
Jays (Perisoreus canadensis capitalis) tugging at food in Mrs. 
Johnson’s fingers and perching on her lap. 

The Secretary then spoke a few words on the difficulty of 
getting members to fill the program on nights when no long 
paper was provided. The Society has, he said, an excellent 
system giving an opportunity for papers of any length and 
nature. At the open meetings, the first in each month, any 
member has a chance to take from five to thirty minutes or 
more to share with the others.any experience he has had or the 
results of any bit of work he has done, or to propose any subject 
for general discussion. It would be a pity were there not in 
and about New York enough people interested in ornithology 
and other branches of natural history. thus to fill one evening 
a month to the interest and benefit of all. Members are 
urged to volunteer for such talks to save themselves the 
annoyance of being solicited personally or by postal card. 

The second paper was presented by Mr. R. C. Murphy and 
was entitled, ‘‘Notes on a Trip into the Lower California 
Desert.’ This trip was made in the spring of this year chiefly 
to procure Pronghorns (Antilocapra americana) and accessories 
for a group for the Brooklyn Museum. Mr. Murphy told of 


10 


the interesting ways of the numerous Pronghorns observed 
and gave notes on many of the 75 species of birds and the 
various other forms of life met with, from caterpillars to Vil- 
lista cavalrymen. He also dwelt on the novel features of 
camping in a country where the noonday temperature in the 
shade exceeded 120° F. and the only water-hole within miles 
was a watering place for myriads of caterpillars. The speaker 
hoped it would soon be possible for some government to give 
protection to the fast-disappearing game of Lower California, 
a land now given over to the market hunter. Bird skins and 
photographs of the country and of the expedition illustrated 
the paper. 

November 9, 1916.—The President in the chair. Eleven 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Ball, Chapin, Cleaves, 
Harper, Hix, F. W. Hyde, Marks, Nichols, Quarles and Weber) 
and three visitors present. In the absence of the Secretary, 
the Chair appointed Mr. Nichols Secretary pro tem. 

Mr. Hix told of a trip with Mr. Fleischer, Mr. Rogers and 
others to Long Beach, L. I., November 2, on which remarkably 
close and satisfactory studies had been enjoyed of a Clapper 
Rail (Rallus c. crepitans), a Purple Sandpiper (Arquatella m. 
maritima) and a Lapland Longspur (Calcarius |. lapponicus) ; 
16 Sanderling (Calidris leucophea) were also noted. On the 
8th Mr. Hix had seen 23 Bluebirds (Szalia s. sialis) in Central 
Park. 

Mr. Quarles reported that Canvasbacks (Marila vallisneria) 
had recently for the first time been successfully bred in cap- 
tivity. 

Mr. Harper submitted the following notes: 

“The Mourning Warbler (Oporornis philadelphia) is apparently of very 
rare occurrence on Long Island. . . . It was recorded about 1840 (Giraud) 
and again in June, 1862 (Howell). Latham has found it twice at Orient 
(September 18, 1906, and September 26, 1908). Mrs. E. W. Vietor permits 
me to record one seen in Prospect Park on May 14,1912. A sixth specimen 
was seen by myself at Shoreham on May 30, 1915. 

“‘T saw a Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) on November 2 in the mea- 
dows between Flushing and College Point, L. I. This is apparently the 
latest New York State record. 

“T saw a Yellow Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea) on 


November 6 ‘in the meadows between Flushing and College Point, L. I. 
This is apparently the latest Long Island record. 


ain 


““On November 6 I saw about 10,000 Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) settle 
for the night in the beds of reeds (Phragmites) in the meadows between 
College Point and Flushing, L. I. Five or six years ago an almost equal 
number were observed roosting there at about the same time of year. 
On each occasion some Grackles (Qwiscalus quiscula) associated with the 
Starlings.” 

Mr. Cleaves outlined the past work of the American Bird- 
Banding Association, which has grown considerably. Mr. 
Murphy has used its bands in the Southern Hemisphere, two 
Arctic expeditions now in the field are equipped with bands 
for such birds as migrate southward, and the work has begun 
to be taken up in the Pacific States. The speaker showed a 
small exhibit of the bird-banding work which he had prepared 
for the Brookline Bird Club, and called attention to interesting 
return records of Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), Night 
Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax nevius), Osprey (Pandion hal- 
vaétus carolinensis), Chimney Swift (Chetura pelagica), Robin 
(Planesticus m. migratorius), ete. 

Mr. Chapin spoke of the peculiar migration* of the Pennant- 
winged Nightjar (Cosmetornis vexillarius) across the African 
Equatorial Forest belt twice a year, and called attention to 
other migration routes of African birds. | 

Lack of time necessitated the postponement of brief papers 
prepared by Mr. Harper and by Mr. Weber. 

November 23, 1915.—The President in the chair. Fifteen 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Bowdish, Chapin, Cleaves, 
Davis, Granger, Harper, Heller, Hix, Lang, Lemmon, Marks, 
Nichols, Rogers and Weber) and thirteen visitors present. 

The Secretary announced the arrival from the printers of the 
Society’s Abstract of Proceedings Nos. 26 and 27, covering the 
two years ending March 9, 1915, and bound under one cover. 
Owing to a misunderstanding the printers had sent it without 
waiting for the index, which was to be printed and sent to us 
for insertion before the copies were distributed by mail. 
Members present, however, might take their copies at the 
close of the meeting. 

The first paper of the evening was, ‘‘Observations on the 


*See “The Pennant-winged Nightjar and its Migration,” Bull. Am. 
Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXYV, 73-81. 


12 


Wood Buffalo of the Northwest,’ by Mr. Francis Harper, who 
had assisted in a Canadian Government expedition into that 
region in the summer of 1914. The Wood Buffalo is a sub- 
species (Bison bison athabasce) of the American Bison, and now 
exists in two carefully protected and prospering herds, aggre- 
gating perhaps 500 individuals, in the country between Great 
Slave and Athabasca Lakes. This country is made up of 
forest, bushy areas and muskegs, the Bison inhabiting all 
three. Mr. Harper had succeeded in seeing only one of the 
animals, but he related what he had been able to glean of their 
habits from the numerous signs,—trails, wallows, etc.,—and 
from officials and other residents, illustrating his observations 
with photographs, which were passed around. 

Mr. James P. Chapin then gave the results of his last 
summer’s trip into Alberta, under the title of, ‘‘ Natural His- 
tory Impressions from the Canadian Rockies.”’ The appear- 
ance and behavior of such Rocky Mountain species as the 
Pika or Rock Rabbit (Ochotona princeps), the Marmot or 
Whistler (Marmota flaviventer), the Yellow-haired Porcupine 
(Erethizon epixanthum), the Spruce Grouse (Canachites cana- 
densis*) and the American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus unicolor) 
were touched on and lantern-slides of many of them and of the 
grand mountain scenery were shown. Discussion followed. 

December 18, 1915.—The President in the chair. Thirteen 
members (Dr. Dwight, Dr. F. M. Chapman, and Messrs. Ball, 
Chapin, Chubb, Cleaves, Granger, Harper, J. M. Johnson, 
Lang, Murphy, Nichols and Rogers) and 26 members of the 
Section of Biology of the New York Academy of Sciences (with 
which the meeting was held jointly) and visitors present. 

Dr. Frank M. Chapman was the first speaker of the evening 
and read his papery on, ‘‘The Origin of Zonal Faunas in the 
Andes.” He explained a series of lantern-slides showing the 
physical nature and vegetation of the several zones in the three- 
ranked Andes of Colombia, from sea-level to perpetual snow 
and from the Pacific to the llanos of the east. He then ex- 


* See female collected, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., No. 182654. 
+ See “The Distribution of Bird-Life in Colombia; a Contribution to a 
Biological Survey of. South America,” Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXVI. 


13 


hibited maps depicting the extent of these zones, and described 
how the highland fauna had been left as it were on islands by a 
retreating tide of northern forms and how the life of the Pacific 
coast had been since acquired from the north, and that of the 
interior valleys from the south around the northeastern end of 
the ranges. 

Mr. C. William Beebe gave the second paper, entitled, ‘A 
Tetrapteryx Stage in the Evolution of Birds.’”’* He had dis- 
covered a double row of feathers, apparently analogous to 
wing-quills and their coverts, across the membrane of the hind 
limb of a squab White-winged Dove (Melopelia asiatica). This 
led to the conception of his theory that far back in the great 
gap between Archeopteryx and its reptilian ancestors, the 
pro-aves had begun gliding flight from an eminence by means 
of theimperfect development of all four limbsas wings. Sim- 
ilar feathers in the very young of some other birds, particu- 
larly Jacanas (Jacana), and the fact that in bats and in all 
living creatures with gliding flight the hind limbs function, 
‘strengthened the theory. Considerable discussion, led by 
Dr. Gregory, followed. 

Dr. Mathews read extracts from Prof. Thomas Barbour’s 
review. of his ‘‘Climate and Evolution.” 

December 28, 1915.—The President in the chair. Thirteen 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. C. G. Abbott, Chapin, 
Cleaves, Harper, Hix, F. W. Hyde, Ladd, Lang, Marks, 
Rogers, Saunders and Weber) and 8 visitors present. 

Mr. Rogers proposed for Resident Membership Mr. Clarence 
R. Halter, a Columbia University student working also in the 
Department of Herpetology of the American Museum. ‘The 
name was referred to the Committee on Membership. 

Mr. Rogers exhibited various recent accessions to the Mu- 
seum’s collection of local birds, the more interesting being: 

Ruff (Machetes pugnax), a male in immature plumage, taken 
September 27, 1914, at Freeport, L. I. 

American Egret (Herodias egretta), a male just completing 
its post-nuptial molt, picked up at Ossining, N. Y., July 31, 
1915. 


* See this title in Zoologica, II, 35-52. 


14 


American Goshawk (Astur a. atricapillus), an adult and an 
immature bird, two of four received in the flesh this autumn, 
as follows: 

Adult male, November 1, Morris, Otsego County, N. Y. 

Adult male, November 11, near Smithville Flats, Che- 
nango County, N. Y. 

Adult, October 21, Norfolk, Conn. 

Immature male, December 5, Stag Lake, Sussex County, 

INGtS: 

Barn Owl (Aluco pratincola), a young bird with down still 
clinging to some feathers, taken from the nest on top of a 
water tank (sheltered by a roof) at Jamaica, L. I., December 1, 
1915. 

Mr. Rogers mentioned that the returns so far received for 
‘‘Bird-Lore’s”’ Christmas Census indicated the absence of 
Pine Siskins (Spinus pinus) and the other irregular winter 
visitors, and the presence of Black-capped Chickadees (Pen- 
thestes a. atricapillus), so scarce last season, in even greater 
numbers than usual. 

Mr. Weber opened the announced discussion on profitable 
club activities. What had for years interested him especially, 
he said, was the question why the Chickadee was so abundant 
some seasons and so scarce in others, and in general what 
caused the fluctuations in the numbers of birds, marked in 
some species, doubtless present in most. He suggested that 
a systematic and accurate series of censuses in definite localities 
would in time yield data covering the facts of fluctuation and 
that these in connection with data on the weather, food supply 
and other possible influences would probably bear interesting 
results. Mr. Weber considered that the Linnean Society 
was in a good position to undertake such work. 

Mr. Ladd spoke of the rapidly increasing number of large 
local bird. clubs throughout the country, most of whose mem- 
bers know next to nothing about birds and are constantly 
demanding information on questions of identification, feeding, 
nesting, etc. Furthermore, very many of these people are 
installing feeding places and nest boxes and are acquiring 
information concerning nesting habits, incubation, care of the 


15 


young, etc., nearly all of which is soon lost. Mr. Ladd’s sug- 
gestion was that this Society should act as a clearing house for 
all these observers, receiving and utilizing information from 
those who would supply it and giving it to those who asked. 

After much discussion it was voted that the President 
appoint a committee who should consider ways and means by 
which the ideas of Mr. Weber and of Mr. Ladd might be acted 
upon. 

January 11, 1916.—The President in the chair. Eleven 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Cleaves, Fleischer, 
Harper, Hix, Lemmon, Marks, Nichols, Philipp, Rogers and 
Weber) and three visitors present. 

Mr. Clarence R. Halter, whose name had been proposed at 
the previous meeting, was elected to Resident Membership. 

Mr. Rogers reported that in the Englewood Region January 
9, he and Mr. J. M. Johnson had seen a flock of three Savannah 
Sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis savanna), the first 
January record for the Region, the latest previous being 
December 19. 

Several members who had visited the Jerome Reservoir 
reported no ducks other than American Mergansers (Merganser 
americanus). Mr. Rogers said that Mr. Kieran, who lives 
nearby, thought the shooting done to scare away the gulls 
accounted for this at least in part. 

Mr. Nichols spoke of Tufted Tits (Beolophus bicolor) and 
Chickadees (Penthestes a. atricapillus) as being more than 
usually common about Englewood this winter. He had seen 
as many as eight to ten of the former in one flock and thirty 
to forty of the latter in another. Several Red-breasted Nut- 
hatches (Sitta canadensis) are wintering in the Region. 

A visitor, Mr. H. K. Decker, recorded a pair of Evening 
Grosbeaks (Hesperiphona v. vespertina) seen by himself and a 
friend, Mr. Hermann, January 9 and 10 near West New 
Brighton, Staten Island. They were in a growth of scrubby 
oaks, apparently feeding on the buds, and allowed themselves 
to be watched at a range of six to eight feet. Mr. Decker said 
that he had noticed particularly the great yellow bills, and 
that the male had seemed to him brighter and yellower than 
the pictures by Fuertes and others had led him to expect. 


16 


Mr. Rogers read extracts from reports on bird censuses 
and how to take them, notably “A Sectional Bird Census’’* 
by Frank L. Burns and the recent work in that line by the 
United States Department of Agriculture, and suggested a 
scheme of his own for a week’s census of breeding birds. 

The President appointed the following a committee to 
consider the ideas for club activities brought forward at the 
previous meeting: Messrs. Weber, Cleaves, Harper, Nichols 
and Rogers. 

Mr. Philipp told of a trip made by himself and Mr. B. S. 
Bowdish to northern New Brunswick the previous summer. 
They had made a special study of the nesting of the Tennessee, f 
Yellow Palm and Bay-breasted Warblers (Vermivora peregrina, 
Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea and D. castanea), all of which 
they had found breeding commonly. The Tennessees and 
Yellow Palms nested for the most part rather gregariously on 
dry ground under branches of scrub spruce. The Yellow 
Palm’s complement of eggs to a set was four or five, the 
Tennessee’s five or six or even seven, the Bay-breast’s six or 
seven. 

January 25, 1916.—The President in the chair. Sixteen 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Ball, Chapin, Cleaves, 
Granger, Harper, Hix, F. W. Hyde, J. M. Johnson, Kieran, 
Lemmon, Marks, Nichols, Rogers, Weber and Woodruff) and 
twenty-two visitors present. 

It was voted that the President appoint a committee to draw 
up resolutions to express the Society’s sense of loss in the death 
of Dr. Daniel Giraud Elliot. 

Mr. Hix recorded two Horned Grebes (Colymbus auritus) in 
Pelham Bay Park January 6, and that several persons whom 
he knew had told him of a Phoebe (Sayornis phebe) that had 
been wintering in Bronx Park. 

Mr. Johnson reported an immature Glaucous Gull (Larus 
hyperboreus), two Sanderling (Calidris leucophea; uninjured), 
at least one—probably several—Sharp-tailed Sparrows (Pas- 

* See this title in Wilson Bulletin, 1901, 84-103; also “Second Sectional 


Bird Census, 1914,” Bird-Lore, XVII, 109-111. 
| See “The Tennessee Warbler in New Brunswick,” Auk, XX XIII, 1-8. 


17 


serherbulus caudacutus) and a Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza 
georgiana) seen by himself, Mr. LaDow and Mr. Rogers at 
Long Beach January 16. 

Mr. Nichols said that he had seen on January 19 from the 
23d Street Ferry, an adult Iceland Gull (Larus leucopterus). 
He had noted the smaller size, paler mantle and less heavily 
built head and bill as compared with the adult Herring Gulls 
(L. argentatus) present; the pearl-gray of the wings faded 
gradually into white toward the edge and tip, and there was 
no black. 

Dr. G. Clyde Fisher remarked that he had seen Goldeneyes 
(Clangula clangula americana) as well as Mergansers (Mer- 
ganser americanus) on the Jerome Reservoir January 23. 

Mr. George K. Cherrie gave the paper of the evening, en- 
titled, ‘‘ Nesting Habits of Some South American Birds.”’ 
From his many years’ experience he gave some of the most 
interesting cases observed, illustrating many of them with 
lantern-slides. There was considerable discussion of the paper 
and Mr. Chapin told of a number of close parallels in the case 
of certain Congo birds, of quite unrelated species, to those just 
described by Mr. Cherrie. 

February 8, 1916.—The President in the chair. Eight 
members (Dr. Dwight, Cleaves, Fleischer, Harper, Hix, 
Marks, Nichols and Rogers) and a visitor present. 

It was voted unanimously that on the occasion of the 
coming Annual Dinner the Society’s medal be presented to 
Dr. J. A. Allen in recognition of the value of his contributions 
to the sciences of mammalogy and ornithology. The Chair 
appointed Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Rogers a committee to make 
all arrangements necessary for the Dinner. 

It was decided to publish as soon as possible after the 
Annual Meeting an “‘ Abstract”’ to contain the minutes of the 
meetings of the year ending March 14, the report of the bird- 
banding work and any other acceptable material received in 
time. 

Mr. Nichols gave a brief paper on ‘‘ The Song Season of 1915.” 
From careful observations made during this one season, he 
divided tentatively our common singing birds into four groups, 


18 


as follows: Group A, typified by the Barn Swallow (Hirundo 
erythrogastra), those species that stop short their singing about 
early June, at the time their young leave the nest, and have 
no second song-season; Group B, typified by the Black and 
White Warbler (Mniotilta varia), whose singing lasts till mid- 
August, though petering out gradually before that time; 
Group C, typified by the Wood Pewee (Contopus virens), those 
species that cease singing early but have an early second season; 
Group D, typified by the Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca), 
with a late second season, even after performing part of their 
migration. Considerable discussion followed. 

February 22, 1916.—The President in the chair. Twelve 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Chapin, Cleaves, Halter, 
Hix, LaDow, Lang, Marks, Murphy, Nichols, Rogers and 
Streeter) and forty-nine visitors present. 

The Society passed unanimously the following resolutions: 


Resolved, that in the death of Daniel Giraud Elliot, an Honorary Member 
of this Society, science has lost an enthusiastic and distinguished promoter, 
whose labors have had an important influence upon the advancement of 
our knowledge of zodlogy; whose many valuable contributions to that 
subject have been an incentive and an aid to countless fellow-workers; 
and whose geniality and uprightness, no less than his scientific accomplish- 
ments, brought him the highest esteem of his associates. 

Resolved, that these resolutions be incorporated in the minutes of the 
Society, and that a copy be transmitted to Doctor Elliot’s family. 


Mr. Hix reported seeing two Bald Eagles (Haliaétus l. 
leucocephalus) along the Palisades in the Englewood Region 
February 5, and four more on the 12th, one of them being 
tormented by Crows. He also saw two Duck Hawks (Falco 
peregrinus anatum); the male at first was carrying a pigeon, 
but the female seized it from him in the air, and the male 
chased her out of sight. 

Mr. Rogers recorded a male Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle 
alcyon) from Troy Brook, about three miles south of Boonton, 
N. J., February 20. 

Dr. William K. Gregory presented the paper* of the evening, 
on “The Evolution of Land-Living Animals from Fishes.” 


* See “The Present Status of the Problem of the Origin of the Tetra- 
poda,” Annals N. Y. Acad. Sct., XXVI, 317-883. 


19 


Dr. Gregory pointed out the resemblances between the fishes 
and other vertebrates, and also the differences, chief among 
the latter being that between fins and limbs, and traced the 
development of the fin from a simple fold of skin to the flexible 
paddle attained by a few forms. One of the greatest gaps in 
evolutionary history is that between even the most advanced 
fish paddle and even the most generalized limb. The speaker 
discussed the claims of the various sub-classes of fishes to be 
considered as the ancestors of the terrestrial animals. The 
two possibilities are the Dipnoans, which have modern rep- 
resentatives in the lung-fishes of Africa, Australia and South 
America, and the Crossopterygian fishes of the Devonian period, 
represented today only by Polypterus and Callamoicthys of 
Africa. The evidence is strongly in favor of the Crossopteryg- 
ians. The paper was fully illustrated with lantern-slides, 
and specimens of fossil fishes were on exhibition after adjourn- 
ment. 

March 14, 1916.—Annual Dinner, held at the Hotel Evelyn, 
the President presiding, and attended by twenty-five members 
(including Messrs. Halter, LaDow, Kieran and duVivier who 
did not attend the Annual Meeting), seven guests of the Society 
(Mrs. J. A. Allen, Dr. and Mrs. Frederic A. Lucas, Mr. H. E. 
Anthony and Miss Demerell, Mr. W. DeW. Miller, and Mr. 
R. C. Andrews), and thirteen guests of individual members, 
besides Dr. J. A. Allen, a Resident Member and the Society’s 
guest of honor, to whom was presented the Society’s medal, 
in recognition of the value of his contributions to the sciences 
of mammalogy and ornithology. 

Dr. Allen replied in part as follows: 


Mr. President, and Members of the Linnean Society of New York: 


I thank you heartily for this evidence of your kindness and of your 
appreciation. 

Thirty-one years ago I entered upon my duties as a curator in the Amer- 
ican Museum of Natural History. A cordial welcome was officially ex- 
tended to me by this Society a few weeks after my arrival in New York, 
by a dinner at the Murray Hill Hotel on the evening of May 5, 1885. Mr. 
E. P. Bicknell was then President. A long address was made by Dr. 
C. Hart Merriam, lauding my achievements as a naturalist and explorer. 
This was followed by other speeches of less length but of equal cordiality 


20 


by Mr. L. S. Foster, then Secretary of the Society, and by Mr. George B. 
Sennett, Dr. George Bird Grinnell and Dr. O. W. Willis. 

Naturally I began at once to take an active interest in the work of the 
Linnean Society, and found its bi-monthly meetings at the rooms of the 
New York Geographical Society, at 11 West 29th Street, oases of pleasure 
in the routine of my duties at the Museum. Four years later, in 1889, 
I was promoted to the Presidency of the Society, which office I held for 
nine years, but I fear I filled it very inadequately. 'The Museum then soon 
became the headquarters of the Society, and for a considerable number of 
years its meetings were held in the Museum Library. 

During the long period of my connection with this Society its membership 
has, naturally, greatly changed. The younger men who now support its 
activities belong to a later generation. Of those who founded it and were 
its early supporters, a few have passed over the great river, while most of 
the others have attained eminence in their special fields of endeavor and 
occupy high positions in the scientific service of their country. I need 
mention the names of only a few to assure you of the truthfulness of this 
statement: Bicknell, now a distinguished botanist and an officer of the 
New York Botanical Garden; Dutcher, who aroused public interest in our 
wild bird life and founded the National Association of Audubon Societies 
and became its President; Fisher, of the United States Biological Survey; 
Mearns, long a distinguished officer of the medical department of the 
United States Army, and an enthusiastic and able explorer of not only our 
own formerly “‘ Wild West,” but of the Dark Continent and the Philippines, 
and now an Honorary Assistant in our National Museum; Merriam, the 
organizer and for many years the Chief of our great Biological Survey; and 
others who also are entitled to honorable mention. Of members now active 
in the Society I shall mention only two, Walter Granger, who for many 
years served as its faithful Secretary, and Dr. Dwight, who has long borne 
its burdens as President. These men we have long had with us, and you 
well know their excellencies and attainments. 

Mr. President and Members of the Linnzan Society: Again I thank you 
heartily for this beautiful testimonial of your respect and appreciation. 


At the close of Dr. Allen’s address, the Society adjourned 
to the usual meeting place in the American Museum of 
Natural History for the Annual Meeting. 

Annual Meeting—The President in the chair. Twenty- 
two members (Dr. Allen, Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Abbott, Ball, 
Bishop, Chapin, Cleaves, Davis, Harper, Hix, F. W. Hyde, 
F. E. Johnson, J. M. Johnson, Lang, Lemmon, Marks, 
Murphy, Overton, Riker, Rogers, Weber and Woodruff) and 
eighteen visitors present. 

The Treasurer read his annual report, showing a balance of 


21 


$2,208.02. The President appointed Mr. Granger and Mr. 
Nichols a committee to audit this report. 
The Secretary then read his report, as follows: 


During the past year the Linnzan Society has met its full quota of six- 
teen times, with a total attendance of 428 persons. The Third Annual 
Dinner, a simple one with no speakers, was attended by 20 members and 5 
guests, and there were 20 members and a visitor at the Annual Meeting 
following it the same evening. At the remaining fifteen meetings the at- 
tendance averaged 27, the largest in three years, while the average of 
members (12.5) was 25 per cent. greater than that of either of the two 
previous years. The largest number present at any one meeting was 61, 
on February 22; the smallest was 9. The first December meeting was held 
jointly with that of the Section of Biology of the New York Academy of 
Sciences, by invitation of the latter. 

The Society has during the past year lost by death one Honorary 
Member, Dr. Daniel Giraud Elliot; one Corresponding Member, Mr. 
Charles F. Holder, of Pasadena, California; and three Resident Members, 
Mr. Samuel Thorne, the Hon. D.O. Wickham, of Cleveland, Ohio (died in 
December, 1914), and Mr. Thomas H. Hubbard. Four Resident Members: 
have been elected, nine have resigned and three have been dropped auto-- 
matically for arrears in dues. The membership list now stands: Resident, 
96; Corresponding, 26; Honorary, 2; total, 124. 

Twelve papers of some length have been presented before the Society, 
two on evolution (one of them of birds alone), four others on birds, two on 
mammals, one anthropological and three on zodlogical expeditions. In 
addition there have been several brief papers, chiefly ornithological. The 
papers have been illustrated with lantern-slides, living and museum. 
specimens, etc. 

Under date of November 23, 1915, the Society published under one> 
cover its Abstract Nos. 26 and 27, 56 pages, containing the minutes for the: 
two years ending March 9, 1915. 

It is hoped to publish this spring an Abstract to contain at least the 
minutes of the past year and the report of the American Bird-Banding 
Association. 


Dr. J. A. Allen was proposed by Mr. Rogers for Honorary 
Membership, and unanimously elected, with applause. 

The following officers were elected to serve for the ensuing 
year: 
PRESIDENT, Jonathan Dwight. 
VicE-PRESIDENT, Julius M. Johnson. 
TREASURER, Lewis B. Woodruff. 
SECRETARY, Charles H. Rogers. 


22 


Mr. Chapin showed a selected series of lantern-slides from 
his Congo photographs, a few of the best of each of the several 
subjects, anthropology, fishes, batrachians, reptiles, birds and 
mammals, describing in his talk the most interesting features 
of their habits, ete. | 


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as 
; at 65 { 
oy i ? 
' As i“? 
; ae bik 1 
‘ r) \ an sar hee 
s We wine fe 
. 2 Ds ‘ cit 
: a, bY , : % 
7 . UADeeN as 4 Oe sah ¢ : 
7 ' ‘i ru 8, teh, y Rs 
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ABaLpRACT 


OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 


SIN ZeAN SOCIETY 


: OF 


NEW YORK, 


FOR THE YEAR ENDING MARCH 13, 1917. 


Tuis is the twenty-ninth in the series of Abstracts published 
by the Linnean Society of New York, and, like the preceding 
issues, Is prepared mainly as a brief review of the work of the 
Society during the year closing with the date indicated above. 
Papers presented before the Society and published elsewhere 
(often enlarged or otherwise different in form) are mentioned 
with proper reference to the place of publication. 

March 28, 1916——The President in the chair. Fifteen 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Ball, Chapin, Cleaves, 
Davis, Granger, Hix, Hollister, J. M. Johnson, LaDow, Lang, 
Marks, Rogers, Weber and Woodruff) and twenty visitors 
present. 

The President appointed the previous year’s committees to 
serve without change during the ensuing year. 

A discussion of the migration by members active in the field 
showed that hardly any migrants arrived before March 25, 
but that on that day, the very first warm one following eight 
weeks of almost daily snowfall, with the ground still deeply 
covered, the country about the City was flooded with all the 
commoner March migrants. Mr. Weber stated that a hundred 
or two hundred Black Ducks (Anas rubripes) appeared on 
Overpeck Creek that day, although the ice had gone out but 


23 


O4 


the day before, and Mr. Hix had noted a Red-breasted Nut- 
hatch (Sitta canadensis) and a Hermit Thrush (Hylocichla 
guttata pallast) in Central Park. 

Mr. Herbert Lang gave the Society a lecture, illustrated with 
lantern-slides and specimens, on ‘“‘The Okapi and its Life- 
History.” The speaker’s six years in the Belgian Congo, the 
northern part of which is the Okapi’s entire range, had given 
him a knowledge of the species probably fuller than that 
possessed by any other white man, so that besides giving a 
history of it as a known species and discussing its systematic 
position, he was able to tell many of the facts of its life-history. 
The Okapi (Okapia johnston), he said, was not an inhabitant 
of almost impenetrable swampy jungle, as was generally 
believed, but lived in high, rather open forest, only visiting 
briefly or passing through the lower country. It seems to 
feed entirely on the leaves of shrubbery, of which Mr. Lang 
found fourteen species that it had been eating. It is found 
usually singly, never in herds. Mr. Lang has never seen a 
living Okapi in nature and, in spite of stories to the contrary, 
some of which he knows to be false, believes that no white 
man has; there is always a carpet of dead leaves in its favorite 
haunts and the animal’s very large ears have exceedingly keen 
hearing. All that are procured are trapped by the natives, 
who get several hundred a year, but Mr. Lang considers the 
species to be holding its own. He saw in all thirty-two speci- 
mens, and the expedition brought to the American Museum a 
very representative series. 

April 11, 1916.—The President in the chair. Twelve 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Chapin, Davis, Granger, 
Griscom, Hix, Hollister, Marks, Murphy, J. T. Nichols, 
Rogers and Weber) and three visitors present. 

At the request of Mr. Murphy, the regular order of business 
was waived that he might present at once his paper* on ‘‘ New 
Facts as to the Relationships of the South Georgia Teal.’”’ The 
speaker’s conclusions were that the species, the southernmost 
duck in the world, was a true Nettion (N. georgicum) and that 
its near relative generally known as Dafila spinicauda, of South 


* See ‘“Anatidz of South Georgia,’ Auk, XX XIII, 270-277. 


25 


America, would have to be put in the same genus unless a new 
one were made for it. Mr. Murphy also described nesting 
and other habits of the South Georgia Teal as noted by him 
on his expedition of 1912. After discussion Mr. Murphy had 
to leave to keep another engagement. 

Mr. Nichols recorded for Mr. Murphy a Dovekie (Alle alle), 
recently received at the Brooklyn Museum, which had been 
picked up, not long dead, on the beach at Montauk Point, 
L. I., April 3, a late record. 

Mr. Davis recalled the Duck Hawk (Falco peregrinus 
anatum) that had dwelt for so long in the winter a year ago 
about the Municipal Building, Manhattan, and said that on 
March 21 he had found near the summit of that building’s 
tower remains of recently-killed pigeons, indicating that the 
same bird or one of the same species had again been frequenting 
the place. 

Mr. Nichols told of a Duck Hawk he had seen April 5 at 
Garden City, L. I. It had just killed a bird of about the 
appearance of a Meadowlark (Sturnella), which it grasped 
firmly and tucked up under its tail, and then, rising steadily, 
it flew away northeastward as though migrating and taking 
its prey along to eat when hungry. 

Reports showed a migration of Holbecell’s Grebe (Colymbus 
holbelli) early in the month, the following having been noted: 


April 1, Passaic River east of Boonton, N. J., 1—R. C. 
Murphy. 
2, Overpeck Creek, N. J., 2—J. M. Johnson and C. H. 
Rogers. 
7, Overpeck Creek, N. J., 1 (collected)—J. A. Weber. 
6-11, south half of old reservoir, Central Park, -1 
—G. E. Hix, etc. 


Mr. Hix reported Yellow Palm Warbler (Dendroica palma- 
rum hypochrysea) and Louisiana Waterthrush (Sevurus mota- 
cilla) in Central Park on April 2; he had seen the latter take a 
little fish from the water and eat it, but did not know whether 
the fish had been alive or dead when seized.* 

Mr. Weber reported for the Census Blank Committee that 


* See ‘‘ Louisiana Waterthrush Eating Fish,’ Copeia, April, 1916, 31. 


26 


a list of ten permanently resident species of birds had been 
decided on and that blanks would be printed covering these. 

Mr. Rogers exhibited a Gyrfalecon (Hierofalco) recently 
taken on Fisher’s Island, L. I., and discussed the status of the 
several forms of gyrfalcons, of which he showed specimens. 
Without having enough time or material to make a decision 
possible, the speaker. considered it probable that at least in 
North America there was but one subspecies, varying individu- 
ally from white to fuscous, different phases predominating in 
different portions of its range. The Long Island specimen was 
referable to obsoletus as at present recognized. 

April 25, 1916.—The President in the chair. Fourteen 
members (Dr. Dwight, Dr. F. M. Chapman and Messrs. Ball, 
Chapin, Cleaves, Granger, Halter, Hix, Hollister, F. E. John- 
son, Lang, Marks, Rogers and Weber) and thirty-three visitors 
present. 

Mr. Rogers recorded an early Parula Warbler (Compsothlypis 
americana usnee), a singing male, well seen, along the Rahway 
River above Millburn, N. J., April 23. 

Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton gave the evening’s lecture, on 
““Woodcraft in New York City.’ The speaker took up es- 
pecially things in the nature of blazes, totems or symbols, | 
sign-language and even customs that are found today in New 
York and other cities and yet may be traced back to our early 
civilization,—some, indeed, to the woodcraft—which was then 
the knowledge of how to exist—of primitive man. Mr. 
Seton had for several years been making a.special study of 
sign-language and had found no fewer than 150 signs in use 
among school children, though many of them would answer 
by a shake of the head the question as to whether they ever 
used sign-language. He also showed how many of these 
things were being revived, adapted and made a part of modern 
industrial life. Blackboard sketches illustrated the talk. 

May 9, 1916.—The President in the chair. Ten members 
(Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Cleaves, Fleischer, Granger, Hix, 
Hollister, J. M. Johnson, Marks, J. T. Nichols and Rogers) 
and twenty-one visitors present. 

The following were the more interesting records reported: 


27 


by Mr. Johnson, a male Black-poll Warbler (Dendroica striata) 
at Nordhoff, N. J., April 30—probably the earliest date for 
the region about New York City; by Mr. Hix, from Central 
Park: American Crow (Corvus b. brachyrhynchus), less uncom- 
mon than usual; Fish Crow (C. ossifragus),one on April 29 (three 
May 4 by Mr. Rogers); Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria 
citrea), a male April 30; Tennessee (Vermivora peregrina), 
Palm (Dendroica p. palmarum) and Hooded (Wilsonia citrina) 
Warblers May 4; a Brewster’s Warbler (V. leucobronchialis) 
May 5; and an Osprey (Pandion haliaétus carolinensis) on 
the 9th; by Mr. Fleischer, a male Red-winged Blackbird 
(Agelaius p. pheniceus) in Central Park May 6 and seven in 
Prospect Park on the 7th where on that day between 5 and 
‘9:30 A.M. he noted 57 species of birds, 19 of them Mniotiltide, 
including one Brewster’s Warbler. 

- Mr. Nichols read a paper discussing Alex Wetmore’s “‘ Birds 
of Porto Rico,” adding thereto notes of his own on birds noted 
by him on the Island at a time of year not covered by Mr. 
Wetmore. He also discussed the status of the West Indian 
species of Mstrelata. His remarks* were illustrated with 
specimens. 

Mr. Rogers gave an account of the birds to which reference 
is made in Shakespeare’s plays, and on the adjournment of the 
meeting, showed the members the Museum’s exhibit of prac- 
tically all the species mentioned, some forty in all. 

May 23, 1916—The Vice-President in the chair. Eleven 
members (Messrs. Cleaves, Fleischer, Granger, Hix, Hollister, 
J. M. Johnson, Lang, Marks, J. T. Nichols, Rogers and Weber) 
and twenty visitors present. 

From Long Beach, L. I., May 21, Mr. Fleischer peered a 
Red-backed Sandpiper (din biaorie sakhalina), and, with 
Mr. Hix and Mr. Rogers, two Least Terns (Slerna antillarum) 
and a Western Grebe (#chmophorus occidentalis). Although 
Long Island is at such a great distance from the range of the 
Grebe, the circumstances—length, distance, light, etce.—of 
the observation were so entirely favorable as to leave the ob- 
servers confident in their identification. 


* See ‘‘Two New Species of Petrels from the Bermudas,” Auk, XX XIII, 
194-195 ; also, ‘‘ Limicole at Porto Rico in July,” l. c., 320-321. 


28 


Mr. Weber reported collecting a male Summer Tanager 
(Piranga r. rubra) at Fort Lee, N. J., May 5. 

Mr. Johnson stated that on May 21 he had found a Law- 
rence’s Warbler (Vermivora lawrencei) near Englewood, N. J.; 
it was singing the song of the Blue-wing (V. pinus) and finally 
disappeared chasing a singing bird of that species. Mr. 
Johnson had recently caught a Greater Yellowlegs (Totanus 
melanoleucus) in Prospect Park; its first and second primaries 
were broken, but it flew some three hundred yards when 
released. 

Mr. Rogers described* his annual try with Mr. W. DeW. 
Miller for a big day. On May 14, over most of their usual 
route northward from Plainfield, they had listed 99 species. 
These included a Woodcock (Philohela minor) which they 
heard give the full courtship performance about three times—a 
late date; a Least Sandpiper (Pisobia minutilla); an unusual 
number—about 30 each—of Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers 
(Actitis macularia et Helodromas s. solitarius); two Yellow- 
bellied Flycatchers (Empidonax flaviventris) and a Mocking- 
bird (Mimus p. polyglottus). Their Mniotiltide included the 
same 24 species they had noted each of the two previous years, 
and two additional, Golden-wings (Vermivora chrysoptera) and 
a Prairie (Dendroica discolor). The number of Tennessee 
Warblers (Vermivora peregrina), six, was nearly twice as 
many as either observer had noted in all his previous springs. 
The most striking absentees were the Green Heron (Butorides 
v. virescens) and the Kingfisher (Ceryle a. alcyon). 

Mr. Hix said+ that on the 13th in the adjoining Dead River 
district he and Dr. Wm. H. Wiegmann had noted 88 species, 
including two Tennessee Warblers, and, on the next day, three 
White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia l. leucophrys). 

Mr. Herbert K. Job told of two Glaucous Gulls (Larus 
hyperboreus) he had watched for a half-hour March 18 in the 
harbor at New Haven, Conn.; they were with Herring and 
Black-backed Gulls (ZL. argentatus et L. marinus). 

* See ‘Plainfield, N. J.. Mid-May Bird Census, 1916,’’ Wilson Bulletin, 


1916, 80-81. 
t See ‘‘New Jersey Census,”’ Wilson Bulletin, 1916, 145-146. 


29 


Mr. Cleaves spoke of finding young Killdeer (Oxyechus vocif- 
erus) on early dates on Staten Island,—May 7 at Princes Bay 
and half-grown birds found by Mr. Harold K. Decker on the 
21st at West New Brighton. 

The speaker of the evening was Mr. F. D. Murphy; his 
subject, ‘“‘Big Game Mammals of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.” 
From experience gained in many years’ residence in that 
region, Mr. Murphy related much that as a sportsman he had 
learned concerning the hunting and other habits of hyenas, 
lions and other big beasts. 

October 10, 1916.—The President in the chair. Twelve 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Bowdish, Chapin, Chubb, 
Cleaves, Griscom, Hix, Marks, J. T. Nichols, Philipp, Rogers 
and Woodruff) and two visitors present. 

Mr. Hix proposed the name of Mr. L. N. Nichols of the 
New York Public Library for Resident Membership; it was 
referred to the Membership Committee. 

The Secretary announced that the manuscript of the minutes 
of the year ending March 14, 1916, for the next Abstract, was 
ready for the press, and asked whether it should be published 
at once, alone, or be held for the report of the Bird-Banding 
Association, which, Mr. Cleaves said, could not be got ready 
within two months. It was voted to publish an Abstract at 
once, to consist only of minutes unless the manuscript of recent 
papers presented to the Society by Dr. Wm. K. Gregory or 
Mr. R. C. Murphy, or both, could be secured. 

Mr. Woodruff told of a Winter Wren (Nannus h. hiemalis) 
which had entered his house in Manhattan September 27. It 
was soon tame enough to perch on his finger, and presently 
flew out through a window opened for it. Mr. Chapin re- 
marked that in the Congo the occasional birds that strayed 
into houses always proved to belong to species.not of the 
cleared land about the houses, but of the forest or at least of 
the second-growth. 

Mr. Chubb recorded the visit of three American Egrets 
(Herodias egretta) to the flooded area in the southeast corner 
of Broadway and 242d Street this summer. ‘They arrived 
July 16 and remained, except for about a week, the rest of the 


30 


summer. ‘Two had disappeared, but one was still there at 
least as late as October 7. 

Mr. Hix reported a male and two female Blue-winged Teal 
(Querquedula discors) at Long Beach, L. I., September 10. 

Mr. Rogers described a census he had taken of breeding 
birds within four miles of Crosswicks, N. J., June 3-11, 1916. 
The idea was to spend the morning hours at the height of the 
nesting season in covering most of the area by a carefully 
mapped-out series of routes, keeping count as accurately as 
possible of the number of pairs noted of each species.” While 
the resulting totals of course did not include all the birds 
along the routes taken, to say nothing of all those in the area, 
it was believed that the figures obtained were sufficient to 
indicate closely the relative abundance of the various species 
and to serve as a basis for comparison with a future census over 
the same ground or with any similar one from some other part 
of the country. The single pair of Baltimore Orioles ([cterus 
galbula) observed indicated a decrease from the numbers the 
speaker had found about Crosswicks in previous years; the 
seven scattered pairs of Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) 
were apparently the first ever known to nest in New Jersey 
south of Princeton Junction. Two newly-hatched Mourning 
Doves (Zenaidura macroura carolinensis) were found to have 
an egg-tooth on each mandible instead of just the one on the 
upper customary among birds. (See No. 44060, collection 
Jonathan Dwight.) 

Mr. Chapin remarked that the Honeyguides (Indicatoride) 
had on each mandible an egg-tooth much longer than those of 
other birds, and hooked. 

Mr. Griscom spoke of a census of breeding birds recently 
taken on the Cornell University campus, which showed almost 
identical numbers in two successive years. 

Mr. Cleaves brought up the subject of bigamy in House 
Wrens (Troglodytes a. aédon), giving instances from his ob- 
servations during the past summer. Others present had 
noticed the same thing, and agreed that it was not infrequent, 
but by no means the rule. 

October 24, 1916.—The President in the chair. Thirteen 


31 


members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Ball, Bowdish, Chapin, 
Chubb, Cleaves, Griscom, Heller, Hix, Marks, J. T. Nichols, 
Rogers and Weber) and thirty visitors present. 

Mr. L. N. Nichols, whose name had been proposed at the 
previous meeting, was elected to Resident Membership. 

Mr. Hix reported Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) to the number 
of about 25 at Van Cortlandt Park October 21; and Mr. Gris- 
com a Magnolia Warbler (Dendroica magnolia) at Long 
Beach, L. I., the 27th. 

Mr. Chubb announced the final departure of the American 
Eegrets (Herodias egretta) from Van Cortlandt Park; the last 
to go was last seen on October 9. 

Mr. Nichols spoke of the unusually early arrival of ducks of 
the genus Marila along the south shore of Long Island in 
October and recorded the following game birds killed at Mastic 
by Dr. Rolfe Floyd: an immature Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa 
hemastica) October 6, a Canvasback (Marila vallisneria) the 
11th (the earliest Long Island record) and two Shovelers 
(Spatula clypeata) the 14th (an early date for the Island). | 

Mr. Bowdish at Demarest and Mr. Rogers on the Rahway 
River above Millburn had each seen a Solitary Vireo (Lanivireo 
s. solitarius) October 22. 

Mr. Weber and Mr. Rogers spoke of the unusual abundance 
of Pine Siskins (Spinus pinus) and Red-breasted Nuthatches 
(Sitta canadensis) in this region this autumn; and Mr. Weber 
remarked on a scarcity of Red-eyed Vireos (Vireosylva olivacea) 
about Palisades Park this summer and recorded a Barn Swallow 
(Hirundo erythrogastra) captured there which had been banded 
last year on Staten Island. 

Mr. Rogers reported a Blue Grosbeak (Gwiraca caerulea) in 
brown plumage seen by Mr. J. M. Johnson and himself on 
Long Beach, L. I., October 15. The bird permitted examina- 
tion at from 25 to 40 feet for as long as the observers pleased. 

Mr. Samuel H. Chubb gave the evening’s lecture, on ‘‘ Pos- 
sibilities in Bird Photography in New York City.” The 
speaker’s lantern-slides included photographs of nesting 
Sparrow Hawks (Falco s. sparverius), Kingfishers (Ceryle 
alcyon) and others about his home at Kingsbridge, of a cock 


32 


House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) which had been coming for 
many months to his window-sill in the American Museum, and 
of the three American Egrets that visited Van Cortlandt Park 
last summer. 

November 14, 1916.—Meeting omitted owing to conflict with 
that of the American Ornithologists’ Union. 

November 28, 1916.—The President in the chair. Thirteen 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Chapin, Chubb, Granger, 
Griscom, Hix, J. M.-Johnson, Marks, J.T... Nichols] ie 
Nichols, Philipp, Rogers and Woodruff) and seven visitors 
present. 

Dr. Dwight proposed for Resident Membership the name of 
Mr. George Gladden of Brooklyn; it was referred to the 
Membership Committee. 

Mr. Griscom recorded a Lapland Longspur (Calcarius l. 
lapponicus) and Black-bellied Plover (Squatarola squatarola) 
seen by himself and Mr. J. T. Nichols at Long Beach, L. I., 
November 26. 

Mr. J. T. Nichols had attended a meeting of the Nuttall 
Ornithological Club at Cambridge the previous evening and 
spoke of the reports of Evening Grosbeaks (Hespertphona v. 
vespertina), Pine Grosbeaks (Pinicola enucleator leucura), 
Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra minor), Redpolls (Acanthis) 
and Brown-cap Chickadees (Penthestes hudsonicus) around 
Boston. 

Mr. Rogers spoke of the following reports of Brown-cap 
Chickadees on November 12 in southeastern New York: at 
Rhinebeck by Mr. Maunsell 8. Crosby; a probable one below 
Irvington by himself; two in Van Cortlandt Park by a young 
friend of Mr. Hix; and one on University Heights by Mr. T. 
Gilbert Pearson. ‘The southernmost previous record had been 
Poughkeepsie, and there only in 1912-13. 

Several members spoke of the effect of airplanes upon birds. 
Mr. J. T. Nichols said that at the aviation grounds on Long 
Island the only time he had ever seen birds heed one was when 
a flock of about 100 Crows (Corvus b. brachyrhynchus) changed 
their course to avoid one. Mr. Griscom stated that airplanes 
had about driven ducks away from Cayuga Lake, and Mr. 


33 


Granger remarked that Mr. C. William Beebe had had a Blue 
Jay (Cyanocitta c. cristata) try to alight on his machine while 
in the air. 

Mr. Charles L. Camp presented the evening’s paper, ‘‘ The 
Origin and Dispersal of California Reptiles.’? His many maps 
illustrated. the life-zones of the State and the corresponding 
ranges of a large number of its reptiles and batrachians, and 
many of the animals themselves were shown to the society by 
lantern-slides. Of particular interest were an arboreal sala- 
mander (Aneides lugubris), which lives in natural cavities in 
oaks, where it lays its eggs, its climbing assisted by its pre- 
hensile tail; and a tree frog (Hyla arenicolor) which has entirely 
forsaken trees to live on the bare rocks near the bottom of 
narrow canyons. The speaker also showed an alcoholic speci- 
men of a very rare toad, Ascaphus true. 

Considerable discussion followed. 

December 12, 1916.—The President in the chair. Eight 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Chapin, Cleaves, Fleischer, 
Granger, Hix, L. N. Nichols and Rogers) and three visitors 
present. 

Mr. George Gladden, whose name had been proposed at the 
previous meeting, was elected to Resident Membership. 

Mr. Cleaves reported the arrival on Staten Island of the 
Brown-cap Chickadee (Penthestes hudsonicus). He had seen 
four in the Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp, on December 5 and 
twice subsequently, but two had been first seen there by Mr. 
Decker on the 2d. 

Mr. Rogers recorded a lone Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirosira 
minor) flying westward over Short Hills, N. J., December 3; 
and on the 10th, a flock of five hundred Cowbirds (Molothrus 
a. ater) at Englewood. 

In the absence of Mr. J. T. Nichols, Mr. Rogers read his 
account* of the occurrence and behavior of the Hermit Spade- 
foot (Scaphiopus holbrooki) at Mastic, L. I., the previous 
summer, where it had appeared several times, and more than 
once in the same pool. 


* See “Spade-foot Toad at Mastic, Long Island,’’ Copeia, June, 1917, 
59-60. 


ot 


Mr. L. N. Nichols gave a summary of his observations on 
the Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) and 
others of the family in the Adirondacks. 

Mr. Chapin mentioned a curious habit of Turtle Doves 
(Turtur) in the Congo, two species of which would come reg- 
ularly to eat the soil at a spot where salt had been stored. 

Mr. Rogers described* the egg-laying and burying operations 
of a Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) as observed by him at 
Runyon, N. J., on July 4 last. 

Mr. Hix presented some notes on Van Cortlandt Park birds, 
including a Prairie Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris pratincola), 
seen on the ball-field July 29, 1916. The number of Kingbirds 
(Tyrannus tyrannus) collecting there in the autumn migration 
is remarkable, at times as many as five hundred being present, 
chiefly in the bushy area above the Lake. The breeding 
Crested Flycatchers (Myiarchus crinitus), Blue-winged War- 
blers (Vermivora pinus) and Chats (Icteria v. virens) seem to 
have decreased in numbers in the Park. 

Mr. Cleaves distributed a questionnaire for information 
regarding Purple Martin (Progne s. subis) colonies within fifty 
miles of Staten Island. 

December 27, 1916——The President in the chair. Nine 
members (Dr. Dwight, Dr. F. M. Chapman and Messrs. 
Cleaves, Gladden, Griscom, Hix, Lang, Marks and Rogers) 
and twelve visitors present. 

Mr. Marks proposed the name of Mr. L. D. Ingalls, of 
Arlington, N. J., for Resident Membership; it was referred to 
the Membership Committee. 

Mr. Griscom recorded a Chipping Sparrow (Spizella p. 
passerina) seen by him and Mr. J. T. Nichols at East Rocka- 
way, L. I., December 24, and on the same day eleven Pintail 
(Dafila acuta) at Lynbrook, including six males, and four 
Canvasback (Marila vallisneria) at Mastic. 

Large numbers of Redpolls (Acanthis linaria) were reported 
present in northern New Jersey and on Staten Island. Mr. 
Cleaves had seen 145 on Staten Island on December 24, in- 
cluding one flock of sixty feeding on ragweed. : 


* See ‘‘ Notes on Three Common New Jersey Turtles,’’ Copeia, August, 
1917, 74-76. 


35 


Owing to the great reception to the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science at the Museum on this even- 
ing, and the small attendance at our own meeting, it was 
decided that the scheduled paper by Mr. Herbert Lang be 
postponed to the following meeting, giving an opportunity for 
general discussion of topics of interest. 

Mr. Rogers gave an account* of the finding by Mr. LaDow 
and himself, last July, of a Chimney Swift (Chetura pelagica) 
nest several feet down on the concrete side of a well near 
Westwood, N. J. The old bird at home apparently tried to 
frighten the intruders away from the mouth of the well by a 
loud rumbling noise of wings. Several members discussed 
this possibility. 

Mr. Griscom told of a Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia) 
chasing flies on an ocean liner far at seca, and Mr. Decker of a 
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) he had watched 
picking flies from the grease of the rigging of a sailing vessel 
along the coast. 

In response to an inquiry by Mr. Griscom, several members 
spoke of having heard the Barred, Great Horned and Screech 
Owls (Strix varia, Bubo virginianus et Otus asio) and also the 
Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus) calling in the daytime, 

while Glaucidium was said by members who had been in its 
- range to whistle regularly in the sunlight. 

- January 9, 1917.—The President in the chair. Twelve 
members (Dr. Dwight and Messrs. Gladden, Griscom, Hix,, 
Lang, Marks, J. T. Nichols, L. N. Nichols, Philipp, Rogers, 
Weber and Woodruff) and sixteen visitors present. 

Mr. L. D. Ingalls, whose name had been proposed at the 
previous meeting, was elected to Resident Membership. 

The name of Mr. Gerald H. Thayer was proposed for 
Resident Membership by Mr. Griscom, and was referred to 
the Membership Committee. 

The Secretary read a communication from the Women’s 
League for the Protection of Riverside Park, urging this 
Society to write to the Secretary of the Board of Estimate and 
Apportionment of New York City a formal protest against the 


* See “‘Chimney Swift Nesting in a Well,” Auk, XXXIV, 337. 


36 


proposed changes in the New York Central Railroad along 
the Hudson, on the ground that they threatened seriously the 
Park. After considerable discussion, it was voted that the 
Secretary sign, in the name of the Society, and send in a brief 
petition sent it by the League, urging that no plan be con- 
sidered that would interfere with the preservation of the Park. 

Mr. Weber reported that Evening Grosbeaks (Hesperiphona 
v. vespertina) had visited his back yard at Palisades Park, N. J., 
December 21, and had been fed on corn, whose kernels they 
cracked. ‘Two days later he found a flock of ten at Fort Lee. 
He also mentioned a Lapland Longspur (Calcarius l. lapponi- 
cus) at Long Beach January 1. 

Numerous additional recent records of Redpolls (Acanthis 
linaria) in the vicinity of New York City were given by 
members, and Mr. Griscom mentioned two seen by Mr. J. T. 
Nichols and himself on Currituck Beach, N. C., December 31, 
(the second record for the State), and Pine Siskins (Spinus 
pinus) seen there the following day. 

Mr. J. T. Nichols recorded a Yellow Palm Warbler (Den- 
droica palmarum hypochrysea) seen by him at Garden City 
January 3, the first winter record for that subspecies on Long 
Island. 

Dr. Wm. H. Wiegmann reported an Orange-crowned Warbler 
(Vermivora c. celata) in the Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp, 
Staten Island, January 8, and apparently a different individual 
there the next day. Markings, form of bill and actions were 
especially noted. 

Mr. L. N. Nichols stated that his son had seen on Christmas 
Day a Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) in Bronx Park 
and a drake Canvasback (Marila vallisneria) off Clason Point, 
Bronx, and on January 6 two Pine Grosbeaks (Pinicola enu- 
cleator leucura) in Bronx Park. The colony of Night Herons 
(Nycticorax nycticorax nevius) in the Park had increased 
in numbers; no fewer than seventy-one were counted January 1. 

Mr. Rogers recorded a Brown-cap Chickadee (Penthestes 
hudsonicus) seen by him at Englewood January 1, probably 
the individual seen in the same spot December 23 by Mr. 
Lester Walsh and Mr. George Schoonhaven of the Brooklyn 


37 


Bird-Lovers’ Club. He remarked that ail the specimens taken 
in Massachusetts and southward this winter, including one 
from Plainfield, N. J., had proved to be P. h. nigricans, so 
that the Englewood bird was almost certainly of that form, 
especially as its notes had seemed to him different (‘‘distinctly 
harsher and more incisive, less drawled, almost explosive’’) 
from those of P. h. littoralis, which he had heard repeatedly in 
New Hampshire as recently as last September. He proposed 
that, owing to the confusion due to using ‘‘ Hudsonian Chicka- 
dee”’ both for P. hudsonicus and for P. hudsonicus hudsonicus, 
the species (P. hudsonicus) be called the “‘Brown-cap Chicka- 
dee,” P. h. hudsonicus the “‘ Hudsonian Brown-cap Chickadee,” 
P. h. nigricans the ‘ Labrador Brown-cap Chickadee,” ete. 

Mr. Gerald Thayer spoke of seeing- White-winged Crossbills 
(Loxia leucoptera) at Roslyn, L. I., January 2. 

Mr. Herbert Lang gave a paper “On the Square-lip Rhinoc- 
eros and the Giant Eland,” giving an account of the history 
of our knowledge of the Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), 
its structural and other differences from the Hook-lip species 
(Diceros bicornis), and many notes on its habits. This was 
followed by a briefer account of the appearance and habits of 
the Eland (Taurotragus derbianus gigas). The paper was 
illustrated with many colored lantern-slides of the animals and 
their haunts. 

January 23, 1917.—The President in the chair. Fourteen 
members (Dr. Dwight, Dr. F. M. Chapman and Messrs. 
Chubb, Cleaves, Davis, Fleischer, Gladden, Griscom, Hix, 
Ingalls, F. E. Johnson, Marks, Rogers and Thayer) and 
forty-eight visitors present. | 

The Secretary read from the Chief Clerk of the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment, City of New York, an ac- 
knowledgment of the Society’s recent communication con- 
cerning the proposed changes in Riverside Park. 

Mr. Gerald H. Thayer, whose name had been proposed at 
the previous meeting, was elected to Resident Membership. 

The President appointed Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Rogers a 
Committee to make arrangements for the Annual Dinner. 

Mr. Hix reported an Orange-crowned Warbler (Vermivora c. 


38 


celata) still present January 20 in the Moravian Cemetery at 
New Dorp. 

Dr. Frank M. Chapman gave an account of ‘‘An Orni- 
thological Reconnaissance in South America,” a six months’ 
American Museum expedition he had led during the past 
year. The party had visited Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, 
Argentina and Brazil. Dr. Chapman spoke particularly of the 
immense multitudes of water-fowl along the Peruvian coast. 
The lecture was illustrated with lantern-slides and with speci- 
mens of interesting birds. 

February 13, 1917—Joint meeting with the Section of 
Biology of the New York Academy of Sciences, at the invita- 
tion of the Section. In the absence of the President of the 
Linnean Society and of the Chairman of the Section of 
Biology, Dr. F. A. Lucas was asked to preside. Sixteen 
members (Prof. H. F. Osborn and Messrs. Chapin, Chubb, 
Cleaves, Gladden, Granger, Heller, Hix, J. M. Johnson, Lang, 
Marks, Murphy, J. T. Nichols, L. N. Nichols, Rogers and 
Weber) of the Society and thirty members of the Section and 
visitors present. 

The regular business of the Society and of the Section was 
waived to proceed at once to a paper* by Dr. W. D. Matthew 
(who presented it) and Mr. Walter Granger on ‘‘ A Gigantic 
Bird from the Eocene of Wyoming.” Dr. Matthew exhibited 
and described a skeleton of Diatryma, fairly complete except 
for lacking the sternum, found by an American Museum 
expedition in 1916. As this genus had been known only from 
a few bones, this was the first chance for anything like an 
adequate conception of it. The bird had the height of 
Struthio, but a shorter neck, far larger head, enormous bill, 
broader pelvis, and four well-developed toes on each foot. 
Superficially it resembled Phororachus, but the bill seemed 
rather for crushing than for tearing, and the claws were com- 
paratively short, straight and blunt. A large chart, lantern- 
slides and skeletons of struthious and other birds were used in 


*See “The Skeleton of Diatryma, a Gigantic Bird from the Lower 
Eocene of Wyoming,” Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXVII, Art. XI, 
307-326 ; also (less technical), ‘‘A Giant Eocene Bird,’? Amer. Mus. 
Journal, XVII, 417-418. 


39 


illustration. Dr. Matthew concluded that Diatryma was most 
probably a Carinate, possibly most nearly related, among 
existing forms, to Cariama. Discussion followed by the 
speaker, Prof. Osborn, Dr. Lucas, Mr. C. Wm. Beebe, Mr. 
Weber and others as to Diatryma’s mode of life. It was agreed 
that it was probably neither raptorial nor a swift runner, and 
that there were indications of ‘a possible littoral habitat, where 
the powerful beak would be useful in crushing turtles and 
large molluscs. 

February 27, 1917.—The Vice-President in the chair. 
Eleven members (Messrs. Cleaves, Gladden, Granger, Hix, 
J. M. Johnson, Lang, J. T. Nichols, L. N. Nichols, Philipp, 
Rogers and Woodruff) and forty-six visitors present. 

Mr. Rogers proposed the name of Mr. Leo E. Miller, of the 
American Museum of Natural History, for Resident Mem- 
bership; it was referred to the Membership Committee. 

Mr. Gladden spoke of noticing recently for the first time a 
note of the Tufted Tit (Bewolophus bicolor) that resembled the 
Bluebird’s (Sialia sialis) autumnal call, and Mr. Decker 
remarked that he had just had the same experience and that 
the note had also suggested to him one of the Blue Jay’s 
(Cyanocitta cristata). 

Mr. Decker reported three male White-winged Crossbills 
(Loxia leucoptera) in the big wood at Great Kills, Staten 
Island. They had been found by Mr. Cleaves, and had been 
seen four times since, by Mr. Cleaves, Mr. Decker and Mr. 
Rogers, always feeding on Sweet Gum (Liquidambar Styraci- 
flua) seeds (most recent date, February 25). Mr. Decker had 
_ also seen on the 25th a flock of sixteen Prairie Horned Larks 
(Otocoris alpestris pratincola) at Castleton Corners in the 
interior of the Island, carefully identified at a few feet with 
8x glasses and compared with a flock of the typical form (0. a. 
alpestris) seen later the same day on the shore. 

Mr. Rogers recorded a flock of five Short-eared Owls (Asio 
flammeus) seen by him and Mr. J. M. Johnson flying about 
over the meadows at Long Beach January 28, and on the same 
day three Sanderling (Calidris leucophea) on the beach; also, 
with Mr. W. DeW. Miller, a Labrador Brown-cap Chickadee 


40 


(Penthestes hudsonicus nigricans) in a new locality, the Myrica 
Grove on the summit of the First Watchung Mountain between 
Westfield and Summit, February 4. 

Dr. Wm. K. Gregory gave the Society a lecture* on ‘The 
Evolution of the Human Face.’’ With lantern-slide illus- 
trations, and beginning with Paramecium (which has the 
first feature of a face, the mouth), he traced the successive 
appearance of the eyes and other features, culminating with 
the prominent chin, which appears only in modern man. 
While a true face is found at least as low as the insects, the 
mammals alone have a muscular face and therefore the only 
face capable of changing expressions. The speaker showed 
that the change from the anthropoid face was gradual through 
that of primitive man to our own, and involved chiefly in- 
creased cranial capacity, reduction of the supra-orbital ridges, 
and retreating of the whole face from a position almost wholly 
farther forward than the brain-case to one under it. Discus- 
sion followed. 

March 13, 1917.—Annual Meeting. The President in the 
chair. One Honorary Member (Dr. A. K. Fisher), twenty- 
five Resident Members (Dr. Dwight, Dr. Morris and Messrs. 
Abbott, Chapin, Cleaves, Davis, Fleischer, Gladden, Granger, 
Helme, Hix, F. W. Hyde, F. E. Johnson, J. M. Johnson, Lang, 
Marks, Miller, Murphy, J. T. Nichols, L. N. Nichols, Philipp, 
Rogers, Thayer, Weber, and Woodruff) and seventeen visitors 
present. The meeting followed immediately the Fifth Annual 
Dinner, held in the Mitla Room of the American Museum and 
attended by twenty-fivet members and fourteen guests. 

Mr. Leo E. Miller, whose name had been proposed at the 
previous meeting, was elected to Resident Membership. 

Mr. Rogers proposed, and it was unanimously voted, with 
applause, that the name of Mr. William Dutcher be trans- 
ferred from the list of Resident to that of Honorary Members. 

The Secretary read the resignation from Resident Member- 
ship of Mr. Geer and of Mr. Harper, owing to their present 
residence in Boston and Washington respectively. 

Mr. Cleaves proposed the name of Mr. Walt F. McMahon for 


* See this title in Amer. Mus. Journal, XVII, 376-888. 
7 Mr. Philipp was not present. 


41 


Resident Membership; it was referred to the Membership 
Committee. 
The Secretary then gave his Annual Report, as follows: 


Although the Linnzan Society omitted a meeting owing to conflict with 
that of the American Ornithologists’ Union, the total attendance at the 
fifteen meetings held during the past year was 507, the largest since long 
papers of general interest were presented twice a month. The Fourth 
Annual Dinner was attended by twenty-five members, seven guests of the 
Society and thirteen guests of individual members, besides Dr. J. A. Allen, 
a Resident Member and the Society’s guest of honor, to whom was presented 
the Linnzan medal in recognition of his services to mammalogy and 
ornithology. Twenty-two members and eighteen visitors attended the 
Annual Meeting the same evening. At the remaining fourteen meetings 
the attendance averaged thirty-three, also the largest in five years; though 
the average of members was only a little over twelve, a fractional falling 
off from last year but still 20 per cent. greater than that of either of the 
two years previous. The largest number present at any one meeting was 
sixty-two, on January 23 (of members, sixteen, February 13); the smallest 
was eleven. The first February meeting was held jointly with the Section 
of Biology of the New York Academy of Sciences, by invitation of the latter. 

The Society has during the past year lost by death four Resident Mem- 
bers: Dr. Gustav Langmann, Mr. Wm. Purdy Shannon, Mr. Alex. H. Ste- 
vens and Mrs. Cynthia A. Wood; five have resigned and one has been 
dropped automatically for arrearsin dues. Dr. J. A. Allen has been trans- 
ferred from the Resident to the Honorary list and five new Resident 
Members have been elected. ‘The Membership list now stands: Resident, 
90; Corresponding, 26; Honorary, 3; total, 119. 

Ten papers of some length have been presented before the Society,— 
three on birds, three on mammals, one on reptiles, one on evolution and two 
miscellaneous. In addition, there have been nine brief papers,—seven on 
ornithology, two on herpetology. The papers were illustrated with lantern- 
slides, museum specimens, charts, etc. 

At the first meeting in October it was voted to publish with our ‘ Ab- 
stract’’ Number 28 Mr. R. C. Murphy’s account of his Lower California 
expedition, but as Mr. Murphy was unexpectedly not able to complete its 
preparation for the press till the present month, it has not yet been sent to 


the printers. 
CHARLES H. RoaGeErs, 


Secretary. 


The Treasurer then read his Annual Report, showing a 
balance in the Treasury of $2,439.65. 

The President called for nominations for the office of Presi- 
dent. Mr. J. T. Nichols moved that the Secretary be in- 


42 


structed to cast a ballot for the continuation in office of the 
officers of the past year. This was carried, the officers for the 
ensuing year standing as follows: 


PRESIDENT, Jonathan Dwight. 
VicE-PRESIDENT, Julius M. Johnson. 
TREASURER, Lewis B. Woodruff. 
SECRETARY, Charles H. Rogers. 


Mr. Miller showed the Society a selected series of lantern- 
slides from his South American photographs of scenery, cities, 
Indians, birds, mammals, etc., and gave a brief account of the 
most interesting of his observations concerning them. 

The meeting adjourned at 9:40 P.M., but most of the 
members and guests lingered as an informal gathering till 
about 10:30. 


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THe DESERT OF THE COLORADO, COPIED, WITH ALTERATIONS, FROM A MAP BY GODFREY SYKES IN 


MacDouaca.’s ‘‘ THE SALTON SEA”’. 


43 


Natural History Observations from the Mexican 
Portion of the Colorado Desert 


With a Note on the Lower Californian Pronghorn and a 
List of the Birds. 


By Rospert CusHMAN MURPHY 


BROOKLYN MUSEUM. 


CoNTENTS. 

PAGE 
MOTTE eNO are hee Ame oF See e RM A UO ae Cate nun bias 43 
ROS LINES ATOMS. cae.) Se ele che nicl gad ene ) etarere yar ew lalays ow ekeee A7 
Zonal, faunal, and associational status of the region............... 48 
Serres vel @l the Unig see med oe a le ane cet he Ska R lore BS aiele ese 52 
Wneghesbhower Calitorman Promgnorns: 4.24. «i. cis be os le bee eee ole a5 
Pa AHEOUISGIOL UNENOITO SE 5 nr on Fines cites alk Fits ceases | Gg A icles eee aes 80 
SMS TIROTONT CU Nasi fe vere te ee Pe SW eR Meh oes Bis A tee aioe sire 100 

INTRODUCTION. 


The desert that lies west of the lower stretches of the 
River Colorado, partly within the southeastern corner of the 
State of California and partly in Mexico, has been, since 
Tertiary times, the driest section of the North American 
Continent. This region, to which the name ‘Colorado 
Desert”?! was long ago applied, extends in the form of an 


1 The region is defined by Blake in MacDougal’s “Salton Sea,” page 6: 
“The name ‘Colorado Desert’ was given to this region by the writer in 
1853. This was before the State of Colorado received its name. It was 
deemed most appropriate to connect the name of the Colorado River with 
the region, inasmuch as the desert owes its origin to the river by the 
deposition of alluvions and the displacement of the sea-water. 

‘“A tendency is shown by some writers to extend the area known as 
the Colorado Desert so as to include the arid regions north of it, especially 
the mountainous region along the Colorado and the Mohave, partly known 
to-day as the ‘Mohave Desert.’ This was not the intention or wish of 
the author of the name. It was intended to apply it strictly to the typical 
desert area of the lacustrine clays and alluvial deposits of the Colorado 
where extreme characteristic desert conditions prevail, such as arid, 


44 


arid depression, a quarter of which is below the level of the 
sea, from the San Jacinto, Chuckawalla, and Chocolate Moun- 
tains on the north, southward nearly two hundred miles to the 
Gulf of California. On the east it is bounded by the Sonoran 
Mesa, and on the west by the main escarpment of the Rocky 
Mountain coastal ridge which comes downward from the San 
Gorgonio Pass as the backbone of the Lower Californian 
peninsula. In the south-central part of this dry expanse is a 
range of mountains, called the Cocopahs, running in a general 
northerly and southerly direction, and dividing the desert 
into two branches which merge in the south at the mouth of 
the Colorado. The larger, northern branch, the chief part of 
which comprises the Salton Basin, in Imperial County, Cali- 
fornia—but with a Mexican appendage formed of the Colorado 
Delta—is known as the Cahuilla Valley. The smaller, south- 
westerly division of the desert, lying between the Cocopahs 
and the Peninsula Range, has been distinguished by the name 
‘Pattie Basin.” 

In the Salton Basin, and doubtless also in its counterpart west 
of the Cocopahs, the average annual rainfall is less than three 
inches, and even this is mainly in the form of cloudbursts. 
During the last few centuries the lower areas of these basins, 
one of which sinks to a depth of more than two hundred and 
fifty feet below sea-level, have been alternately submerged and 
desiccated many times. Further back in geologic history, 
probably in the middle Tertiary, the whole of the Colorado 
Desert appears to have been a great sea, above which the 
peaks of the Cocopahs may have jutted as islands, and which 
received the silt-laden waters of the Colorado River at some 
point far above the site of Yuma, Arizona. Through the 
pass between the San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains, 
where reefs of fossil oysters are now to be found a thousand 


treeless plains, old lake-beds, and sand-hills—such conditions as are found 
in the Sahara of Africa and in the delta regions of the Nile. The appella- 
tion may properly be confined to the regions reached by the deposition of 
the silt of the Colorado, whether in the form of deltas or at the bottom 
of ancient lakes. I should also include the bordering detrital slopes 
from the contiguous mountains. So restricted, the area is practically 
coterminous with the ancient beach-lines and terraces of the lakes which 
occupied the valley.’ 


45 


feet above the floor of the valley, this sea was perhaps con- 
nected with the Pacific Ocean, thus making an island of 
Lower California. 

With the uprising of the land and retreat of the waters, 
the ancient sea first was cut off from direct continuity with 
the Pacific, and subsequently the Cahuilla and Pattie Valleys 
became separated north of the Cocopah Mountains, their 
waters still being continuous in the south with the Gulf of 
California. But the Colorado River deposited its incalculable 
tons of alluvium! along the southern margin of the Cahuilla 
Valley and began to build up the great delta that eventually 
formed a land junction with the Pattie Basin, south of the 
Cocopahs. In this constructive process the Colorado was 
materially aided by the huge tidal bores characteristic of the 
head of the Gulf of California, these tending to form successive 
barriers of marine deposits behind which the river might 
spread out during its overflow, and drop its burden of sus- 
pended soil over the widest possible area. Thus the two 
basins of the Colorado Desert came to be landlocked and to 
contain each a residual lake, of which that occupying the 
Cahuilla is now called the Salton Sea, that of the Pattie the 
Laguna Salada, or, as the native Indians say, “Laguna 
Maquata.”’ 

As stated above, these basins have been again and again 
completely dried up, a condition which has recently prevailed 
up to the year 1905, when a winter flood of the Colorado 
broke the barriers of an insufficient irrigation canal supplying 
the cultivated part of the Cahuilla Valley, known as the 
Imperial Valley. The water made new and destructive cuts 
across the plain, and turned practically the whole volume of 
the river into the Salton Sink. Not until 1907, after an 
enormous expenditure of money, could the flow be checked, 
and by that time the Salton Sea had attained such size that 
it will hardly have entirely evaporated before the year 1930. 
During the deflection of the river, moreover, its former bed, 

1 The sediment brought down by the river has been estimated as sixty 
million tons yearly (MacDougal, 1906). 


2 This calculation does not take into consideration the ever-increasing 
drainage from irrigation canals, which may perpetuate the Salton Sea. 


46 


just west of the Sonoran Mesa, had become so choked with 
vegetation and a heavy deposit of silt from the standing 
water, that, when finally turned back from the Imperial - 
Valley, the Colorado sought new outlets towards the south- 
west and broke into the channels of a maze of rivulets in the 
delta, among which the Hardy River now carries by far the 
greatest bulk cf water. This stream skirts the southern end 
of the Cocopah Mountains, and, when surcharged by the spring 
freshets, it spills over the flood-plain on its western bank into 
the Pattie Basin, there increasing the area of the Laguna 
Salada, which is again reduced, after the subsidence of the 
river, by rapid evaporation. 

It thus happens that the river water in the whole of the 
Colorado Delta, from near the United States borderline to the 
Gulf of California, is in a condition of unstable equilibrium, 
and is likely to break out afresh in a time of extreme flood 
and once more to submerge the vast acreage of arable land in | 
the lower, adjoining basins. Owing to the presence of high 
ground along the border, the inhabitants of the Imperial 
Valley are dependent for their irrigation upon a canal that 
passes through Mexican territory, and there are those who 
have recommended the purchase by the United States of 
the southern half of the Colorado Desert in order to safe- 
guard an American population of more than fifty thousand 
people, and millions of acres of the richest, most easily tilled 
soil known in the western hemisphere. In the words of one 
writer, “‘ Nature has accomplished for the valley what man 
and his dikes have done for Holland,”’ but vastly more human 
effort must yet be brought to bear before the Imperial farms 
and ranches can be thoroughly secured against the danger 
incident to an act of malice, or to a surcharged river combined 
with an exceptionally high tide in the estuary. At the present 
time a huge dam is being constructed to block a possible 
breach at Volcano Lake, Lower California, which has a higher 
altitude than much of the country to the northward. But 
south of this, and also west of the Cocopahs, lies perhaps the 
better portion of an American Nile flood-plain, where the only 
inhabitants are a handful of Indians, and where a readily 


47 


tillable soil, inexhaustible water supply, and a climate seem- 
ingly devised especially for intensive agriculture, offer potential 
opportunities the like of which perhaps do not exist elsewhere. 

Biologically speaking, the Pattie Basin, lying wholly within 
the Mexican State of Baja California, is of particular impor- 
tance because of its isolation, and because of the even slopes 
by which it ascends the enclosing mountain sides and the 
consequent wide range in the character of its xerophilous 
vegetation, which seems in general to be far more luxuriant 
than that of the Salton Basin. Here, too, owing to the 
absence of man, there exists a primeval desert fauna, of which 
only the pronghorn antelopes, mule-deer, and mountain sheep 
have been appreciably reduced in numbers by the incursions 
of big game hunters. It was into this interesting country 
that I went, in March, 1915, for the principal purpose of 
obtaining specimens of antelopes and other desert-living crea- 
tures that were desired for use in the Brooklyn Museum’s 
exhibit of desert life. | 

During the course of a month, I made two trips across 
the border, the first taking me to the far side of the Pattie 
Basin, the second only to Volcano Lake and the meandering 
track of the upper Hardy River. On the first and longer 
trip my companion was Mr. Robert H. Rockwell, chief 
taxidermist in the Museum. ‘The second trip was made with 
my wife, Grace E. Barstow Murphy. 


PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS. 


The natural resources, including the geology, botany, and 
zoology, of the country about the Salton Sea have been rather 
thoroughly investigated. So much can not be said of the 
Colorado Delta or of Pattie Basin, although several scientific . 
expeditions have passed through the territory in the interests 
of the Desert Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, the 
United States Biological Survey, and other organizations. 
The late Dr. Mearns, while a member of the International 
Boundary Commission, crossed the desert in March and April, 
1894, and collected mammals at eleven stations south of this 
section of the Mexican line, one of the localities being at the 


48 


very mouth of the Colorado River. His observations are 
briefly recorded on pages 21, 22, 125-132, and elsewhere, in 
his monograph on ‘‘Mammals of the Mexican Boundary of 
the United States’’ (1907). Unfortunately no detailed publi- 
cations have yet appeared concerning the results of the 
Biological Survey field work. The botanical studies of the 
Desert Laboratory parties, as well as the history of earlier 
investigation from the days of the Spanish explorers, have 
been summarized in MacDougal’s important book ‘The 
Salton Sea’’ (1914), with citations of the principal published 
sources of information. 

In February, 1905, Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads, of the Phila- 
delphia Academy of Natural Sciences, made a boat trip from 
Yuma to the mouth of the Hardy River, his collections and 
notes subsequently forming the basis of a report on the birds 
and mammals of the delta (Stone and Rhoads, 1905). Side- 
lights on the general character of the country, its climate 
and fauna, have moreover been cast by numerous popular 
articles by American sportsmen in Outing, Recreation, Field 
and Stream, and similar non-technical periodicals. 

Although not applying specifically to the Mexican portion 
of the Colorado Desert, a list by Van Rossem (1911) of winter 
birds of the Salton Sea, and more particularly an admirable 
treatise by Grinnell (1914) on the mammals and birds of the 
lower Colorado Valley, are of utmost importance to those 
interested in the zodlogy of the area. 


ZONAL, FAUNAL, AND ASSOCIATIONAL STATUS OF THE REGION. 


Grinnell (1914) has confirmed the supposition that the 
country contiguous to the lower Colorado River should be 
assigned entirely to the Lower Sonoran Zone, and to the 
fauna designated as the Colorado Desert. The same limits 
undoubtedly apply to the section of northeastern Lower 
California described herein, although at the southern extremity 
of the region, west of the head of the Gulf of California, the 
relatively narrow riparian belt is bounded abruptly by high- 
lands that rise to the Boreal Zone in the mountains of San 
Pedro Martir. 


49 


A precise biotic study of the Colorado Delta and its adjacent 
flood-basins, such as I had no opportunity to attempt, would 
yield data for further elaboration of the associational areas 
into which Dr. Grinnell has so graphically and comprehen- 
sively divided the valley of the river along the whole extent 
of the California-Arizona boundary. His groupings are worth 
quoting for the bearing they have upon researches in the delta: 
. River Association. 

. Willow-Cottonwood Association. 
. Tule Association. 
. Arrowweed (Pluchea sericea) Association. 
. Quail-brush (Atriplex lentiformis) Association. 
. Mesquite Association. 
. Saltbush (Atriplex polycarpa) Association. 
. Creosote (Larrea) Association (Mesa). 
9. Wash Association. 

10. Saguaro (Cereus giganteus) Association. 

11. Encelia (EZ. farinosa) Association (Rocky Hills). 

Between Needles, California, and the vicinity of Yuma, 
Arizona, each of these belts is more or less continuous and 
definite, and each can be characterized in terms of position 
and botanic features, as well as by lists of the birds, and more: 
particularly the resident mammals, that favor it. Along such. 
a great straightaway valley as this reach of the river, a detailed 
ecologic system is rather easy of application, but in the 
Mexican portion of the Colorado Desert the physiographic 
conditions produce so high 4 degree of complexity that inter-- 
pretation is perhaps possible only through taking account: 
of the simpler state so well described by Grinnell. Thus in: 
the delta, the enormous areas of marshy, occasionally flooded 
land, with a network of streams and sloughs, fresh and brackish 
lakes, and abundant aquatic vegetation, vastly increase the 
potential scope of the River Association. The same circum- 
stances also cause the four succeeding areas of Grinnell’s list, 
namely the Willow, Tule, Arrowweed, and Quail-brush Asso- 
ciations, to become involved almost beyond discrimination. 
Further complexity in the southern Colorado Desert, requiring 
a replacement or new combination of the associations appli- 


CON OOF WHF 


50 


cable to the valley north of Yuma, is due to such factors as 
the great sinks of the Salton and Pattie Basins, with their 
fluctuating saline lakes, extensive dune areas, and the high 
alkalinity of their soils; the existence of hot springs, mud 
volcanoes, and solfataras; the presence of an isolated mountain 
range practically surrounded by the delta and its neighboring 
basins; the unbroken, plant-covered slopes on the western 
side of Pattie Basin; etc. | 

Since I had no opportunity to trap small mammals during 
our hurried sojourn in Lower California, it would be rash for 
me to try to demarcate exact associations in the Pattie Basin 
and the borders of the fluvial land. Yet in comparing 
Rhoads’s annotations, on twenty-one species of terrestrial 
mammals from the delta region, with Grinnel!l’s more ample 
account of species inhabiting the river valley north of the 
international boundary, one is struck by certain reflections 
of the changed and unusual physiographic relations. For 
instance, two white-footed mice, Peromyscus maniculatus 
sonoriensis and P. eremicus eremicus, occupy well-defined and 
approximately exclusive strips of country along the Colorado 
between Needles and Yuma. P. m. sonoriensis is the bottom- 
land form, finding its optimum life-conditions in the Willow- 
Cottonwood Association, and occurring much less abundantly 
in the Arrowweed, Quail-brush, and Mesquite Associations. 
Grinnell trapped 65 specimens, and failed to find the species 
at any point beyond the mesquite belt. P. e. eremicus, on 
the other hand, is the upland-desert form, belonging altogether 
to associations outside the mesquite belt. The capture of 
109 specimens showed that it finds its optimum in the Saltbush 
Association, and extends its habitat sparingly above. 

Now in Lower California, Rhoads found P. e. eremicus 
plentiful in the Cocopah Mountains, where he took 19 speci- 
mens. He characterizes this mouse as a ‘‘rock-loving moun- 
tain species.”” P. m. sonoriensis was ‘excessively abundant 
in the bottoms,” as might have been expected, but “four 
specimens were also trapped in the Cocopahs with the pre- 
ceding species.’”’ Here then is at least slight evidence of an 
intermingling which doubtless obtains, in various botanic and 


51 


zodlogic phases, throughout a region where a low, intricate, 
subtropical delta, an arid and abrupt mountain range, and a 
barren, alkaline desert basin are in contiguity. 

I should like to apply, in so far as possible, the principles 
of Grinnell’s system to the present hasty reconnaissance of 
the Mexican portion of the Colorado Desert. Since I have 
little of a specific nature to report concerning the first five 
(River to Quail-brush) associational groups in the list, these 
may here all be combined under the broader ecologic heading 
of ‘‘Delta Area.’”’? The Mesquite Association, to be sure, 
belongs in part to the delta, but it also extends in its pure 
form (‘orchard forest’’) over tracts many miles square, in 
the southerly part of the Salton Basin, from the plain south 
of the Alamo River almost to the northern point of the 
Cocopahs; and, again, over much of the low land in Pattie 
Basin. The Saltbush Association is in evidence in several 
parts of Salton and Pattie Basins, notably at the southeastern 
end of the latter, near the base of the Pinto Mountains. The 
Creosote Association comprises large expanses around the 
margins of both basins. As might be suspected, it is an 
unimportant element on the western border of the delta fan, 
below Volcano Lake and the Cerro Prieto. The Wash Asso- 
ciation is especially well delimited, extensive, and botanically 
luxuriant on the rising land west of the Pattie Sink. It is 
also more or less distinguishable at points along the eastern 
side of the Cocopahs, and scantily elsewhere. 

I observed no giant cactus during our whole journey south 
of the border, but there is a. distinctive plant zone, very 
likely corresponding to the Saguaro Association, along the 
higher reaches of the stony incline below the eastern face of 
the Tinaja Mountains and Peninsula Range. Here Fouquieria 
splendens, in its most magnificent development, is far and 
away the predominant floral feature. The area may perhaps 
warrant the name ‘“Ocotilla Association.’’ Traces of it occur 
also on the lower slopes of the Cocopahs and at the foot of 
Black Butte. 

Brief notes upon the several associational groupings, and 
their faunas, will be found in the following narrative and in 
the list of birds. 


52 


NARRATIVE OF THE TRIP. 


Our guide on the journey to the Pattie Basin was Captain 
Edward W. Funcke, of San Ysidro, California, a man who has 
conducted scores of hunters into the mountains and hollow 
plains of northwestern Lower California, and has even made 
the long land pilgrimage to the southern end of the great 
peninsula. During his scouring of the country, he has learned 
the watering places of the native Indians, besides discovering 
several new ones for himself, and he possesses perhaps a more 
practical knowledge of the Mexican half of the Colorado 
Desert than any other American. 

As manager of the pack train, the “captain’’ employed 
a taciturn Mexican called Pancho, a ranchman who under- 
stood the mentality of mules and burros to a degree that sug- 
gested close kinship. He was also reputed to be a great 
hunter, but, as subsequent events proved, his old-time Win- 
chester must have had a crooked barrel or else he was the 
very worst shot in all Baja California. A third member of 
the captain’s party was the camp cook, who answered to the 
name of Mac. ‘ 

Colonel Esteban Cantu, Military Commandant (now Gov- 
ernor) of northern Baja California, courteously granted the 
necessary permission for our expedition, and on March 29, 
1915, the morning after Mr. Rockwell and I had reached 
Calexico, all was ready for us to start into the desert. Our 
cavalcade comprised four horses, a mule, a hinny, and five 
burros, not counting one burro colt which carried no pack 
and which came only because its mother wouldn’t go without 
it. The horses hardly measured up to the popular idea of fiery 
western steeds. On the contrary, they were rather prosaic, 
ambulatory beasts, whose virtue lay in their ability to keep 
burros on the move, and to find their own living in a land of 
sparse vegetation by browsing all night after they had travelled 
all day. Only the mount assigned to Mac had a properly 
picturesque appearance, for, although a weak-kneed brute, 
this rangy, pale-eyed, yellow and white, pinto horse had the 
look of a high-grade polo pony. Pancho rode a stalwart 
hinny, his own favorite, which together with the mule made 


53 


up the most valuable pair of animals in the outfit. A hinny 
has toughness, and power of subsisting on little water and less 
food, to about the same extent as a mule. The chief distinc- 
tion between the two, outside of appearances, is tempera- 
mental, for the mule considers itself a horse, while the less 
egotistical hinny aspires only to be a burro. Thus is demon- 
strated the strength of filial instinct for the mother. One 
has but to lead a mare, and all the mules will follow; in like 
manner, the hinnies flock in the tracks of a she-ass. 

Just across the borderline from Calexico, a sandy-haired, 
blue-eyed Mexican, with an automatic rifle and a belt full of 
cartridges, inspected our customs receipts, and then passed 
us along with salutations. We followed a road that led 
through six miles of reclaimed, cultivated fields, as fertile as 
the country on the American side of the line, until we came to 
the final- artery of the Imperial irrigation system, at the 
edge of the desert. Its muddy water was the last supply 
this side of Hardy’s Colorado, so we camped for lunch. 
Meadowlarks, at the outposts of their range, were singing 
in the alfalfa fields; we were to hear them no more until 
we had returned from the wilderness to the agricultural 
country of which they seem to be a part. Coots, scaup ducks, 
and baldpates were feeding in neighboring puddles of irrigation 
water, and ox-eyes pattered around the margins. 

When we saddled and struck out southward, we crossed 
first several miles of rather dense mesquite (Prosopis glandu- 
losa), the visible inhabitants of which were doves, gnatcatchers, 
and desert quail, with an occasional foraging owl (Speotyto). 
We were ascending, by imperceptible stages, the southerly 
slope of the Salton Sink, and were within a few miles of the 
gulch of the New River. Presently the cracked, periodically 
flooded soil of the mesquite groves gave way to sandy eolian 
areas in which the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) was the 
dominant plant, although bunch-grass, chollas and prickly 
pears, one or more species of Atriplex, and small ocotillas, 
became increasingly common as we approached the Cerro 
Prieto (Black Butte). Vegetation of this general character 
prevailed as far south as a point east of the Borrego (Mountain 


54 


Sheep) Peak of the Cocopahs, from where the desert descended 
again to the Colorado Delta. 

During the afternoon, Mr. Rockwell dismounted to kill a 
rattlesnake (Crotalus (mitchelli?)), and at our night camp, 
near a lonesome desert corral, he posed the reptile and made 
a plaster mold. 

On the morning of March 30, we started early from the 
dry camp, passing Black Butte on our left before the sun was 
high. All through the day, I hunted on either side of our 
line of march, my black horse paying no attention even when 
I shot right over its ears. Potting jack-rabbits and desert 
quail from the saddle was good sport, especially as the quail 
took wing much more freely than I had expected; but the 
jack-rabbits proved to be infested with the revolting larve 
of a bot-fly (Cuterebra), so thereafter we shot no more of them 
for food. Innumerable caterpillars (Hemileuca), of several 
sizes, covered the floor of the desert. The crops of the quail 
were crammed with them. 

Buzzards, ravens, and egrets were seen as we drew towards 
Hardy’s Colorado. Lizards, too, became numerous, particu- 
larly little gray ‘‘gridiron-tails”’ (Callisaurus) which scuttled 
right and left with marvelous swiftness, raising their diminu- 
tive arms clear of the ground and taking prodigious strides 
with their long hind legs. 

Just before we reached the site of our noon camp, a male 
vermilion flycatcher, the most flamboyant sprite among all 
the birds that cross the southern border of the United States, 
darted high over a clump of mesquite and poised in the air, 
singing as if to split his throat, and puffing out his feathers 
until he looked like a red ball on wings. 

While we were preparing lunch under some mesquites on 
the cracked, sun-baked flood-plain of the river, an old Indian 
appeared, and looked on without a word. It seemed to be 
the custom of our westerners to give no recognition to lone 
Indians, for nobody spoke to him or showed a sign of realizing 
his presence. He stood statuesquely for half an hour, moving 
only enough to shift his weight from one foot to the other; 
but when Mr. Rockwell hauled out a camera, he raised an 
admonitory hand. 


5 


a5) 


In the middle of the afternoon, while we were approaching 
a watering place near a spur of the Cocopah range, we saw a 
troop of horsemen rounding a point half a mile away. They 
apparently spied us at the same moment, for they immediately 
deployed, spurred in advance of their pack horses, and cantered 
towards us. We soon recognized them as a band of Villista 
rurales, and when they drew up we perceived that the belts 
of all were bristling with soft-nosed bullets. While we 
halted our caravan, the Mexicans gathered around us, and 
each rider rested by sliding part way from his saddle and 
hanging by the crook of one leg. They had evidently been 
on a long scouting expedition, for their mounts and pack 
horses, though good, looked almost worn-out. The leader 
of the band, a one-eyed old fellow wearing a gray and red 
uniform, brought up the rear. When he joined our group, a 
long, pompous consultation, and examination of our papers, 
ensued. He finally seemed ready to pass us, when one young 
horseman, clad in blue jeans and carrying around his waist 
and chest enough rifle cartridges to supply a company, noticed 
my automatic pistol, which I had neglected to have included 
in the list of fire-arms named in our permit. The Mexican 
promptly asked me to empty the magazine and to pass the 
arm and loose cartridges to the one-eyed chief. The band then 
rode on toward Mexicali, where they punctiliously turned in 
the pistol, for I subsequently received it from Colonel Cantu. 

We struck camp early beside a lagoon of the Hardy, because 
Pancho said that there was no herbage for the horses farther 
along the trail. While I wrote my journal by the light of a 
candle and the full moon, strange amphibian voices rang 
out from the sunken marshland, the only other sounds being 
the bell on our white mare’s neck and frequently a sputter 
from a browsing burro. 

Next morning I awoke before dawn, when the golden moon 
was just sinking behind the western crest of mountains, A 
very heavy dew had fallen, and the Jagoon had risen several 
inches during the night. Killdeers were piping, nighthawks 
and bats were darting about, and railbirds skulked stealthily 
across the wet flats. While I was broiling a cottontail rabbit 


56 


over Pancho’s early fire, a great file of cormorants passed 
against the dawn, and many blue herons lumbered up from 
their roosts in the brakes. 

During most of this day we crossed tips of the Cocopahs 
and the rough, stony gullies between them. In the middle 
of the forenoon we reached the settlement of Papa Laguna, 
the grizzled head of a large Indian family which lived in 
several wicker, mud-plastered houses, surrounded by well- 
kept tilled patches and dog-proof racks of jerked beef. 
Prompted by simple courtesy, we made the correct move 
of shaking hands with old Laguna, and of asking his permission 
before taking any liberties about his camp. He therefore 
proved gracious, and after I had shown him a few photographs, 
he consented to having his own picture taken, as well as those 
of several of his grandchildren. First, however, he growled to 
one of the women to find his hat, which apparently he wore 
only on state occasions. 

These Indians call themselves Cocopahs,! a name which 
appears in other spellings on eighteenth century Spanish maps. 
Together with the Yumas and Cahuillas, they are among the 
last remnants of the autochthonous peoples of northern Baja 
California. The Cocopahs dwell all along the delta plains 
and cultivate considerable strips of the rich alluvial soil, in 
which they raise corn, barley, potatoes, onions, melons, and 
other garden truck. Many of the young men act as cowboys 
for cattle syndicates, and so earn their right to a certain 
amount of beef. The older men, such as Laguna, obtain some 
of the commodities of civilization by plume-hunting, disposing 
of their illicit wares to border smugglers. A few of them own 
dilapidated shotguns, against the rules of the Mexican officials, 
but as they can obtain ammunition only with much difficulty, 
they do most of their rabbit and bird hunting with bows and 
arrows. Most of the women never leave the wilderness or 
see white people other than passing rurales. The Indians 
have no schools or priests. Porfirio Diaz is said to have 

1 MacDougal (1906) gives a highly interesting account of the customs 


and culture of these agricultural Indians, as well as data on the extra- 
ordinary diminution of their numbers during recent times. 


Plate LI. 


Fig. 1.—HorsrEs AND BURROS DRINKING FROM HARDy’S COLORADO DURING THE PERIOD OF OVER: 
FLOW, Marcu 30, 1915. THE RETICULAR CLEAVAGE OF THE SILT, AND THE 
““DROWNED’”’ IRONWOOD TREE, ARE CHARACTERISTIC. 


Fig. 2.—An INDIAN HABITATION BETWEEN THE HARDY RIVER AND THE CocopaH MOUNTAINS. 
THE WALLS AND ROOF OF THE STRUCTURE ARE MADE OF ARROWWEED. AT THE LEFT, A 
SUPPLY OF BEEF IS SUSPENDED FROM A LINE TO BE SUN-CURED OR ‘‘ JERKED”’. 


57 


befriended them by stipulating that no lease of public lands 
might invalidate their right to keep their dwellings and to 
earn their sustenance by hunting and agriculture. 

For twenty-five cents Mr. Rockwell purchased a formidable- 
looking bow and several arrows from a middle-aged Cocopah 
whose skill with the weapons was vouched for by the blood 
and feathers of a flycatcher (Myzarchus) that still clung to 
one of the arrows. Strangely enough, these Indians would 
not sell even a small piece of bead work for five American 
dollars. The only other valuable handicraft that we saw 
within their shacks were several very large pottery jars, the 
like of which, according to Captain Funcke, had not been 
made among them for more than a generation. Laguna pro- 
duced sixteen egret plumes, which he tried to sell to us, and, 
judging by the price he asked, he was thoroughly familiar 
with the demand for these feathers in certain quarters. 

After bidding farewell to the Indians, we entered a forest 
of heavy mesquites, which at this point stretched from the 
river bank to the base of the mountain range. Presently 
I saw the leading animal, the mule, step over a large rattle- 
snake, probably Crotalus atrox. The Captain’s white mare 
also passed over without seeing the serpent, which lay silently 
in coils. My horse was the third in line, but while I was 
drawing my shotgun from its scabbard, the snake unwound, 
and darted under the mesquites. 

Our burros made no end of trouble by lying down con- 
tinually, and by running off the trail. We had to keep 
driving them back, a task, however, to which the horses were 
thoroughly trained. One of the characteristics of a desert 
burro is a stolid aversion to wetting its dainty hoofs. It 
prefers making a detour of half a mile with a heavy pack on 
its back, rather than to cross an eighteen-inch strip of water 
jutting across the path. One of our burros was lost altogether, 
but after an exasperating delay we found it lying comfortably 
against a rocky wall of the mountain side.1 

1A surprising number of burros, and even horses, escape from the 


night camps of travellers, or from Imperial Valley ranches, into this 
southern Colorado Desert, where they lead feral lives indefinitely, unless 


58 


At noon we camped where the Hardy ran so close to the 
granite hills that it left scarcely a beach between. Here the 
water flowed in a maze of separate streams. ‘I'wo of us took 
a swim in one of the swift, muddy, side channels, while the 
horses and asses crunched and slopped among the succulent 
tules. Groups of wild ducks were floating down stream, and 
a flock of white pelicans circled cloud-high over the marshes. 
Two families of vermilion flycatchers evidently had head- 
quarters close by, for the blazing males sat on the most con- 
spicuous perches over the streams. Desert quail uttered their 
melancholy yelps from the brush at the base of the mountain, 
but they clung closely about the sheltering mesquite stalks. 

The afternoon’s march was hot and hard. When we made 
camp below Mount Mayor, of the Cocopah Range, men and 
beasts were thoroughly tired, and the horses, mules, and burros 
rolled on their backs in the dry mud of the flood-plain as soon 
as their pack-saddles had been removed. 

The night was mild, whereas the two preceding had been 
cold. After an early start, on April 1, our caravan journeyed 
between the Hardy and the mountains for about four miles, 
until we had rounded the southern end of the Cocopahs. Then 
began a portion of the trip which will always be remembered 
as an ordeal. We struck out over the flat, plantless flood- 
plain of the Pattie Basin, a vast bar of alluvium, as level as a 
table, that stretched from Hardy’s Colorado to the Laguna 
Salada, and from the Cocopahs to a chain of mountains called 
the Pintos, twenty miles to the southward. In May, when 
snows thaw in the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado overleaps 
all bounds, and converts this desert into a great sea, an en- 
largement of the Laguna Salada. The plain was now stark 


they chance to be noosed by the leather lariats of the Indians. On April 
14, 1915, several miles northwest of the Cerro Prieto, I saw three wild 
bay horses, which ran away from me like deer. Later in the same day I 
encountered a pair of errant burros wandering along affectionately to- 
gether. Almost at the same moment I happened to flush a jack-rabbit, 
which accidently ran plump into one of these burros, and it would be hard 
to decide which was the more startled. The burros stampeded as rapidly 
as their limited powers of speed would permit, while the rabbit disappeared 
in seven-league boots. 


“NVIGN]T HVdOOO() ATHHCTH NV ‘VNOOVI— ZG GNV [| ‘SSI 


WOE Sea val 


59 


dry on the surface, cracked in lines like a coarse, irregular 
net, and here and there shining white with crystals of alkaline 
salts. Over vast stretches, the salt formed a brittle, glistening 
crust, which collapsed rottenly under the horses’ feet, letting 
them through into gluey mire. Most of the time we went 
afoot, driving our tired animals ahead. The heat was in- 
sufferable. One of the burros gave out, so that we had to 
distribute her pack among the others, already over-burdened. 
We had endless trouble in keeping them on the right way 
over the fifteen miles of trackless desert. 

In the midst of this terrific heat, the mirage was tantalizingly 
perfect. All around us, at a distance of perhaps half a mile, 
seemed cool, blue lakes, gleaming in the sun, stretching away 
to the foot of the mountains and to the willow-fringed Hardy. 
Off the northern end of the Pintos, were small dark buttes 
and clumps of mesquite trees which seemed rocks and islets 
extending from a promontory into an ocean. Southward, 
beyond all this vast sea of thirst, rose the bluish heights of 
La Providencia, the mightiest picacho of the sierra of San 
Pedro Martir (10,000 ft.), its crest marked with gullies full 
of snow.! In this day’s heat it was almost impossible to 
believe that less than three months before several cattlemen 
had been frozen to death near the base of that mountain. 

Over all this expanse of baked mud we saw no suggestions 
of life save reddish desert flies (7’abanus), dead snails,? and a 
few bird bones, but when we drew near the sand dunes and 
brush patches of the far side, a lean coyote sneaked out ahead 
and showed us his heels. When we reached the higher ground, 
towards the Tinaja* foothills, we found the ground strewn 


1 For a fascinating description of this wonderful, uncharted sierra, see 
the paper by A. W. North (1907). 

2 Planorbis tumens Carpenter, a discoidal, air-breathing, fresh-water 
Limneid, and Cerithidea sacrata Gould, a spiral, brackish-water, amphibious 
mollusk. It is interesting to find the latter, an estuarine shell, together 
with a typical fluviatile species. Whether the Cerithidea thrives in the 
Colorado delta through the beneficent effect of tidal bores, or whether it 
has become widely distributed around the salty inland sinks, I do not know. 

$A tinaja is an earthen water-jar, and these mountains are so called 
because of the presence of pot-holes which serve as natural reservoirs for 
rain-water. 


60 


with honey-combed pebbles of red and black voleanic rock. 
In one place the pebbles had been scraped aside in lines as 
far as we could see, leaving smooth, fairly distinct trails, 
perhaps made and used by the Indians long ago. 

Near the edge of the sand dunes were several low cairns 
of the voleanic stones. These, likewise, had no doubt been 
built by Indians of old to mark the direction of the famous 
Tres Pozos, the only sources of fresh water for many a long 
and burning mile. Although there were formerly three of 
these water-holes, as the name implies, two of them have 
become filled up and nearly obliterated. The remaining well 
is exceedingly hard to find. For many years, it is said, only 
a few of the Indians have known its whereabouts. Old 
Laguna, who has lived within twenty miles of it for most of 
his days, has never yet seen it. After the development of 
the Imperial Valley, some ranchmen, who were accustomed to 
drive cattle northward over this desert, gave a mountain 
Indian twenty-five dollars to show them the well, for until 
that time their stock had had to travel forty-eight hours with- 
out drinking. Captain Funcke also learned its location from 
this Indian. He subsequently dug out the well so as to 
increase the supply of water, and charted its position so 
accurately by permanent landmarks as to be able to find it 
with certainty. Lately it has become an important watering 
place on the route leading southwestward from the Colorado 
Delta, through the Arroyo Grande, to the Camino de la 
Sierra, the old mission trail that runs along the roof-ridge 
of Baja California. 

The only other water-holes in the lowlands of Pattie Basin 
are along the western base of the Cocopah Mountains. Just 
northwest of the southernmost point of this range, for instance, 
is the Pozo del Coyote, the water of which becomes poisonous 
unless it is bailed out often enough to prevent alkaline con- 
centration. Fifteen miles further north, is the unfailing 
seepage of the Agua de las Mujeres, which lies on the Indian 
trail leading from Volcano Lake, over the Cocopahs, and across 
the waste of the central Pattie Basin to the Palomar Canyon, 
in the peninsular escarpment. MacDougal (1907) says that 


61 


the blind route traversing the basin, “‘a distance of about 30 
miles across a desert plain, baking in the vertical rays of a 
tropical sun,’”’ sometimes covered in parts “‘ to a depth of a few 
inches or a few feet” by the hot, salty sheet of the flood that 
fills the Laguna Salada, has been crossed even in midsummer 
by Indians or prospectors, both afoot and on horseback. 

The Tres Pozos oasis was our objective for the noon camp. 
It turned out to be a copse precisely like a thousand others 
which dotted the plain in all directions. The water-hole was 
such as African mammals dig in the sand. It was about ten 
feet across by seven deep, with a slope on one side, and at the 
bottom stood three feet of seepage water—yellow, opaque, 
and slimy. Its surface was sprinkled with dead caterpillars, 
and the edge of the incline was lined with the footprints of 
coyotes. Our horses and burros guzzled their fill, after which 
I made an effort and swallowed a mouthful. It tasted like 
laundry suds, and put me in mind of the water which thirsting 
Arabs take from a slaughtered camel’s stomach. If the 
coyotes drink this fluid, one might consider shooting them as 
merely putting them out of their misery. The desert ante- 
lopes, and mule-deer, have no such trial, for they drink not 
at all, unless it be during early summer when the Laguna 
Salada is highest and freshest. 

From the Tres Pozos, our distant hunting ground, which 
extended into the arroyos of the Tinajas, looked like a green, 
grassy slope; in reality it was covered with ironwood trees 
(Olneya tesota), mesquite, palo verde (Cercidiwm torreyanum), 
creosote, smoke-bush (Parosela spinosa), huge ocotillas, and 
many cacti. 

After a long rest by the well, we proceeded up the slope to 
the heart of the antelope country, and made our permanent 
camp seven miles from water. A quail in a near-by ironwood 
called its mournfulest all night long; at breakfast time it still 
sat and yelped in plain view, with its pretty black tassel tipped 
forward over its bill. 

A great portion of the western slopes of Pattie Basin (see 
map), where we now prepared for a ten-day sojourn, might 
well be described by the term “‘ arboreal desert’ because of the 


62 


abundance and luxuriance of the half-dozen species of trees, 
the ocotilla, larger shrubs, and cacti. The lower, flatter parts 
of the slope, where the altitude is only slightly greater than 
that of the Laguna Salada and its flood-plain, are covered 
with scattering clumps of mesquite similar to the one at the 
Tres Pozos. Interspersed among the mesquites are patches 
of an Atriplex, probably the quail-brush, A. lentiformis (Pl. VI, 
Fig. 1.), and between the clumps is a sparse growth of bunch- 
grass. Mesquites are by no means confined to this lower 
belt, however, for they form rows, sometimes veritable hedges, 
along the innumerable arroyos that reach for a distance of 
eight or ten miles up the slope to the abrupt face of the Tinajas. 
Indeed, the size and vigor of the mesquites in this dry expanse 
does not conform to the general opinion that the species is 
unable to flourish on the desert proper. Beyond question, 
the largest trees that we saw were along the upper washes. 

At the southeastern extremity of the basin, near the foot 
of the Pinto Range and bordering the delta flood-plain, is an 
extensive dune area where acres of “‘antelope weed” (Abronia 
villosa) were in blossom at the time of our visit. Southwest- 
ward from here, and uphill, this type of terrane is succeeded 
by stretches in which saltbush (Atriplex polycarpa) and creo- 
sote prevail, although there are also a number of wind-formed 
mounds, twelve or fifteen feet high, still covered by the pro- 
jecting limbs of large, moribund mesquites. At least one 
such mesquite dune was used as a roosting place by a small 
flock of ravens, in April, 1915. 

Beginning in the sandy area just described, che extending 
for several miles up the long slope, is a broad belt of creosote 
bushes in which there is a considerable mingling of gramineous 
plants and annuals. Pebbly tracts, practically bare of vegeta- 
tion, are common among the creosotes, and in such places we 
frequently found horned larks feeding. 

Running in more or less parallel lines across the creosote 
belt, and extending with sporadic interruptions from the face 
of the Tinajas to the very floor of Pattie Basin, are the long 
gulches or arroyos previously mentioned. ‘These are usually 
gouged out to a depth of from two to eight feet below the 


63 


general level of the mesa. Their beds are composed mostly of 
clean, water-borne sand, which is arranged in bars that indicate 
the agency of either thunder-storms or freshets due to rapidly 
melting snow. These arroyos are bordered not only by the 
healthiest of mesquites, as stated above, but also, especially 
along their higher stretches, by exuberant ironwoods, palo 
verdes, smokebushes, etc.; while the stony soil between them 
supports bisnagas (Hchinocactus), “‘organ-pipe”’ cacti, and an 
extraordinary profusion of early spring flowers. Sometimes 
an ‘“‘island”’ of small trees, from the bases of which wild 
gourd (Cucurbita palmata) vines radiate, will be found in the 
very middle of a broad arroyo. It is evident that the Wash 
Association is here much more extensive than the correspond- 
ing zone in the lower valley of the Colorado River (ef. Grinnell, 
1914, 82-84), doubtless because of the long, gradual slope on 
the western side of Pattie Basin. 

The highest belt of the whole slope, adjoining the bare, rocky 
incline of the mountains themselves, is characterized by the 
number and size of the ocotillas (Fouquieria); and along the 
lower edge of this ‘‘association,”’ if it deserve such a designa- 
tion, the genuine upland desert flora, and at least the avian 
fauna, are to be seen at their best. J am quite convinced 
that a pleasant surprise is in store for the first botanist to 
explore this particular region. Is it not suggestive, for in- 
stance, that on the slopes three or four miles south of the 
butte called the Caparote, I found mesquite trees with trunks 
close to three feet in diameter at the point of branching? 

Our attempts to collect pronghorns, an object to which all 
other activities were subordinated during our stay in Pattie 
Basin, met with scant success. The best opportunity of all, 
resulting in a failure, came on the first morning of our hunting. 
Thereafter, however, we continued hopefully for many days, 
under exceptionally trying climatic conditions and at all hours 
except the insufferable noon-day, to range over a country 
from which the quarry had obviously been nearly cleaned out. 
The present notes are nothing more than the sum of the natural 
history observations incidental to each day’s work. 

On April 2, Captain Funcke, Mr. Rockwell, and I started 


64 


hunting by starlight and moonlight, and were off towards the 
east just as the first faint streak of orange lined the crest of 
the Pintos. The sun rose red and sparkled on the heights of 
San Pedro Martir, and for a brief while the desert was like a 
garden of cool sweet odors. The perfume came mostly from 
the lavender antelope-weed (Abronia), but was mingled with 
the delicate scent of a small white primrose, a tall desert 
‘Easter lily,’ and a score of other flowers, yellow, white, 
red, and purple. Mockingbirds were singing their best from 
every mesquite; a pair of croaking ravens circled over us; 
various lizards, just warming into activity, scuttled hither 
and thither. I picked up two lizards which had become torpid 
during the chill night and were lying as if dead. Both were 
desert-colored and granular above, but on either side of their 
bellies were stripes of a brilliant hue. The larger lizard (Uma 
notata) had round black spots followed by streaks of red. 
In the smaller species (Uta graciosa) the stripes were longer and 
of a bright blue color. The significance of such patches on 
the bellies of lizards has not been discovered, but they are 
known to vary with species, sex, age, season, and the tempera- 
ture or light conditions of the immediate surroundings. 

We spread out abreast a couple of hundred yards apart, 
keeping a sharp lookout ahead. ‘The country was fairly open 
—with ironwood and mesquite along the washes, and groves 
of creosote bush stretching down towards the basin. In 
most places we could see around us for three or four hundred 
yards, sometimes even farther. Walking was difficult, owing 
to the fields of voleanic pebbles on the mesa, and the soft sand 
in the arroyos. The heart-shaped tracks of antelopes were 
visible everywhere, but were mostly old. Finally we came 
upon the track of a single buck which had apparently passed 
within a short time, and a few minutes later I spied the animal 
some distance in advance. I had scarcely time to crouch, 
before it started off on a lope, and, after we had trailed it 
about two miles, we gave it up. 

Antelopes begin to feed early in the morning, and cover 
the ground rapidly while they graze; but before the sun is 
high they almost invariably lie down to rest. If a band is 


65 


discovered while feeding, the animals do not always run away 
at sight. They may instead, if unused to men, stand and 
watch with curiosity, or they may even come forward to 
investigate at close range. The last is what happened at our 
second meeting. I saw a troop of seven or eight bucks and 
does in the distance, and while we were stalking them, a 
beautiful buck, taking us perchance for a new kind of prong- 
horn, came cantering towards us, stiff-legged and proud. He 
stopped eighty or ninety yards away from Captain Funcke, 
who, on bended knee, was watching him along the barrel 
of Pancho’s ancient Winchester. To this day the Captain 
cannot explain how he missed that. shot, except by blaming it 
on the untried rifle. 

After this disappointing incident, we wandered on through 
the oppressive, rapidly increasing heat, our lips caking and 
turning black from thirst, and our cottony tongues cleaving 
to the back of our mouths. We had two gallons of water in 
our three canteens, but it was the horrible slimy stuff from the 
Tres Pozos. One had not the will power to drink enough of 
it to quench thirst; indeed it was necessary to think of 
things far away before swallowing a single gulp. 

Before the middle of the forenoon we began to work back 
towards camp, now and then climbing into large mesquites 
or ironwoods in order to look over the ground for roving prong- 
horns. In camp, we lay through the heat of the day almost 
stripped of clothes, moving round our big mesquite so as to 
keep in the shade, and seeking further relief by perpetually 
changing the attitude of our bodies.! Desert flies buzzed 
about us, but this annoyance was not to be compared with the | 
heat and the blinding glare. When the sunbeams had grown 
slanting, we went hunting again, this time in the direction of 
the Tinajas, well up into the passes. We found no trace of 

1 120° F., in the shade, is by no means an unusual temperature in parts 
of the Colorado Desert. The average daily maximum temperature at 
Calexico, during the month of July, 1906, was 105° F. On August 10, 
19138, at Greenland Ranch in the Imperial Valley, the thermometer reached 
134° F., the highest shade temperature ever recorded by the United States 


Weather Bureau. In the San Felipe Desert, Baja California, just south 
of Pattie Basin, 114° F. has been recorded at seven o’clock in the morning. 


66 


antelopes, and returned about dark, after a day of twenty-five 
miles of the roughest kind of walking, just as the horses arrived 
from the Tres Pozos with twenty gallons of the vile water, 
carried in canvas sacks. We drank tea until our stomachs 
bulged, yet the thirst in our throats remained unappeased. 

On the following day we were fortunate in seeing no fewer 
than nine antelopes, but all of them at very long range. 
Pancho alone obtained a shot, which served only to make 
the game still more wary. 

On the breathless morning of April 4, we tramped close to 
twenty miles, partly over exceedingly rough and stony soil. 
The whole period of seven or eight hours was a gruelling drill, 
especially as we saw not one pronghorn to encourage us, 
though for a while we followed the fresh trail of a doe with 
two fawns, losing the tracks on hard ground, after the trio 
had evidently started to run. I startled innumerable jack- 
rabbits, which bounded away, now and again sitting on their 
haunches to look back at me. When they ran between me 
and the early sun, a blood-red light glowed through their 
upright ears. I also flushed a number of the silent night- 
hawks from their naps beneath mesquite shrubs. Among the 
creosotes were many large burrows, which, the Captain said, 
were the diggings of badgers. From time to time we care- 
lessly stumbled into the little homesteads of kangaroo-rats 
(Dipodomys sp.). ‘These tawny, parched, thirst-loving rodents 
dig good-sized tunnels in low mounds of sandy soil, under- 
mining the surface so that the tired and unwary pedestrian 
sinks through to the middle of his shins, a disconcerting 
accident for him, and doubtless also for the rats. Horses 
schooled in the ways of the desert learn well to avoid such 
pitfalls. 

During the morning, Mr. Rockwell had a narrow escape 
when he stepped on a horned rattlesnake, or sidewinder 
(Crotalus cerastes), one of two that lay apparently asleep in 
his path. Probably his foot came down on the snake’s head, 
and at the buzz of the rattle he leaped to safety. We killed 
the snake and its mate. The latter made short strikes— 
about a third the length of its body—with lightning rapidity. 


67 


While watching us, it kept thrusting its forked tongue alter- 
nately up over its snout and down beneath its chin. This 
was only the first of several experiences with these incon- 
spicuous, backward-gliding reptiles, which were unpleasantly 
common in the Creosote and Saltbush Associations, especially 
at the hour of dusk. One evening Mac, the cook, killed a 
sidewinder in Captain Funcke’s bedding just as I rolled up 
in my own blankets too fagged even to investigate closely for 
a similar bedfellow. On another occasion I rode my horse 
into the sand dune region, in the southeastern part of Pattie 
Basin, to hunt alone. A sidewinder at the base of a buried- 
mesquite mound was my first customer, and, oddly enough, 
the horse showed no fear of the reptile rattling ominously 
under his nose. When I dismounted, the snake struck at me 
repeatedly while retreating tail foremost, but I killed it with 
a small stick and deposited it in my saddle-bag. ‘The speci- 
men, before me as I write, is 22 inches long, or of about the 
maximum size for the species. It has nine rattles and a 
button, and in its right upper jaw are two full-sized, functional 
fangs. The left fang is single. 

The first antelope, a fawn, was brought into camp at noon 
of April 4. Pancho, coming from the water-hole with our 
eleven animals, had killed it with his roundabout rifle while 
the poor creature lay sleeping, or feigning sleep, among the 
creosote bushes. ‘The fawn, however, was no more welcome 
than the bulging water bags, for, until the Mexican arrived, 
we had had just two cupfuls of the yellow fluid in our posses-. 
sion, and we were seriously considering a seven-mile hike to 
the Tres Pozos on our weary feet. 

Late in the forenoon on this day, dense white clouds ret 
over the Peninsula Escarpment, obscuring some of the peaks. 
The Captain said that they were mists from the Pacific; he 
prophesied strong westerly winds, which subsequently arose. 

On April 6, we moved our field headquarters from the first 
site to a miserable clump of mesquite on low ground a mile or 
so northwest of the Tres Pozos. The new neighborhood was 
far less attractive than the higher land—hotter by day, 
colder by night—but guayeta grass for the horses was rela- 


68 


tively abundant, and we had more ready access to an extensive 
pronghorn range in the direction of the Caparote. During 
our second evening here, Captain Funcke returned from the 
day’s hunt with the skins and meat of two antelopes. He had 
had to blindfold, hobble, and tether his blood-shy mule before 
he could lash the carcasses upon her back. From sunset 
until breakfast the coyotes howled and howled all around our 
encampment. When we answered them from our blankets, 
they redoubled their outery. 

The season was the height of spring in Pattie Basin. The 
breeding of the desert birds was just beginning—that is, 
most of them had commenced to build nests, but few had laid 
their eggs. Moths were replacing the armies of caterpillars; 
other common insects were wasps, bees, flies, and four or 
five abundant beetles. The latter were especially in evidence 
about dusk. A shiny black Carabid, Calosoma parvicollis, 
was exceedingly predaceous, puncturing the Hemileuca cater- 
piilars with its huge horizontal jaws, and devouring the custard 
within. When disturbed, it fled by running, and, if captured, 
it exuded a drop of offensive fluid that smelled like ink, only 
worse. A gray, antique-looking Tenebrionid, Cryptoglossa 
verrucosa, more like an armored fossil than a creature of this 
age, seemed to be a burrower. It was also a sort of opossum 
among insects, for it pretended to be dead whenever it was 
discovered. Still another beetle, a black Meloid, Phodaga 
alticeps, had the habit of raising its elytra straight up over its 
back, so that they might serve as sails as it scurried before the 
wind across bare patches of the desert floor. Finally, a 
fourth beetle, also a Meloid, and known to science as Cysteo- 
demus armatus, possessed a round, hunch-backed body, which, 
since its pitted surface was always covered with white dust, 
resembled a bag of meal. The most extraordinary point 
about this insect was that in calm weather one could quite 
distinctly hear its footfalls on the sand. It used to give me a 
strange sensation to crouch down among the creosote bushes 
at the hour of sunset, and listen to the beetles scampering 
about. 

To me, twilight always seemed a mysterious hour in the 


Plate IV. 


Fig. 1.—Tuer Cocorpan RANGE, VIEWED FROM NEAR THE BANK OF NEW RIveR. THE CHARAC- 
TERISTIC DETRITAL SLOPES (WASH ASSOCIATION) SHOW DISTINCTLY. ‘THE VEGETATION 
IN THE FOREGROUND IS MAINLY SALTBUSH (Afriplex polycarpa). 


Fig. 2.—CROsSsING A SPUR OF THE CocopaHs, Marcu 31, 1915. 


69 


open desert. Almost before the afterglow had gone, shooting 
stars began to streak the clear sky. Ravens, suddenly grown 
silent, still circled about before settling to roost among 
the branches of the largest dying mesquites. Jack-rabbits, 
frightened by my horse, appeared in the changing light 
to glide prodigiously over the bushes, like pale phantoms. 
Other eerie creatures that sprang into life at this hour were 
the nighthawks. By day these birds rest on the ground 
under creosotes and mesquites, coming forth by thousands at 
about the same moment just after sundown. The sound 
produced by their wings, as we often heard it through the 
night and particularly at early dawn, is an obscure bell-like 
vibration, as if the very atmosphere were trembling. Its 
source is difficult to discover; sometimes it seems like a 
noise within one’s ears. 

On April 10, I decided that after one more day’s work I 
should start for Calexico, taking Pancho, most of the pack- 
animals, all the heavy luggage, the cases of specimens, and the 
least practicable amount of food. Rockweil and the Captain 
would remain to continue the hunt. 

Accordingly, on the morning of April 11, we were up before 
the narrow crescent of the old moon. The three of us were 
off early towards the northwest, the Captain’s little dun mule 
setting a pace that kept us spurring. We rode directly into 
very rough country, near a gap in the Tinajas, evidently 
frightening a small troop of antelopes on the way, for we 
found their scampering tracks. 

Tethering the mounts in an arroyo where there was good 
feed, we started toward the Caparote separately, the Captain 
taking the low-ground route, Rockwell the middle, and I 
the higher, stony slopes near the base of the mountains. 
Along my way the vermilion ocotillas were in full bloom, 
_and some of them were giant plants indeed, close to thirty 
feet tall. The tiny leaves and saffron blossoms of the palo 
verde were just sprouting. There were also many white 
hibiscus-like flowers, and two kinds of yellow composites 
(Encelia eriocephala and Tricoptilum incisum). Among the 
stalks and on the golden blossoms of the former species, were 


70 


mating pairs of a large and handsome beetle (Cantharis magis- 
ter), related to the “‘Spanish fly’’ of Europe, with black elytra 
and red head, thorax, and legs. Yellowish tassels were just ap- 
pearing on the twigs of the mesquites. Some of the latter 
were huge trees, but nearly all seemed half or two-thirds 
dead from their commensal struggle with the red-berried 
mistletoe (Phoradendron californicum). 

If possible, the day seemed thirstier than any other. After 
hunting in vain for several miles, and nearly emptying my 
canteen, I had to return to the base for more water from 
the sack. Larger game failing, I collected doves, phaino- 
peplas, flycatchers, shrikes, cottontail rabbits, and a gopher 
snake (Ophibolus getulus subsp.), and then crawled under a 
shady mesquite in the arroyo, and ate lunch, which consisted 
of corn bread and jerked antelope meat. While I ate, a 
mockingbird sat on the topmost dead bough of a neighboring 
mesquite, and sang the sweetest song that I had ever heard. 
The pure ecstasy of his singing must also have carried him 
off his feet, for every few seconds he would leap joyously into 
the air, only to dive again to his trembling perch and renew 
the music. The noon-day mirages were wonderful past 
expression. At times all the distant mountains seemed to be 
half engulfed in a sea which reflected their inverted summits, 
while the flood-plain on the near side of Hardy’s Colorado 
looked so much like water that one could have sworn it such. 

The other hunters were no more successful than I. In the 
afternoon we worked together, but saw nothing to reward our 
search except some fairly fresh tracks. We reached the Tres 
Pozos at sunset. Our mounts each drank about fifteen gallons 
of the alleged water, the horses, in accordance with equine 
etiquette, preceding the Captain’s mule. 

Packing the entire outfit on the morning of April 12 took 
a long time, so that it was half-past seven o’clock when we | 
reached the Tres Pozos. The surface was covered with froth, 
the result of some sort of fermentation. We watered our 
animals, and filled our sacks and canteens (for the last time 
with that fluid, I thought rejoicingly). The Captain gave me 
Colonel Cantt’s permit, and we parted, he and Rockwell up 


71 


among the creosote bushes, Pancho and I towards the suffocat- 
ing flood-plain of the Laguna Salada. We drove our pack- 
animals hard, allowing the speed to slacken only where the 
glistening alkaline crust broke through, and the horses’ feet 
sank above the hocks. It was perceptibly hotter than when 
we had come on the southward journey, but we made good 
time and reached the first watering place on the Hardy at noon. 

Looking back toward the beautiful though inhospitable wilder- 
ness of our two weeks’ sojourn, I again had the impression of a 
tremendous grassy lawn, sloping gently from the rugged 
Tinajas to the level of the flood-plain. Here and there over 
this region we could see scores of dusty whirlwinds, each send- 
ing its thin, pale column up like a church steeple. We had 
become accustomed to meeting these whirlwinds during our 
hunting. Sometimes they had seemed to stand in the same 
place for minutes at a time; sometimes they rushed along at 
great speed, shaking the bushes in their path, and carrying a 
swirl of sand and dead leaves in their bases. 

While Pancho was preparing lunch, I enjoyed a cool swim 
in a cove of Hardy’s -Colorado. We then packed again, 
making a short noon, and rode along below the jagged moun- 
tains. Quail, now all breeding, called from every copse.. 
Bevies of them ran before us, as did also an occasional jack- 
rabbit and many brush cottontails (Sylvilagus auduboni 
arizone). ‘The latter had a peculiarly comical, half-grown 
appearance. 

The Hardy was very much higher than it had been in March. 
In places we had to make wide detours, while at every bend 
the muddy river went rushing along at a rate of six or seven 
miles an hour, with backward-flowing eddies near the banks. 
During the afternoon we followed for a time an upper trail 
over a small ridge, from where I could survey the whole 
delta of the Colorado, clear to the mountains of Sonora many 
a long mile to the eastward. The arrowweed, willows, and 
reeds of the river-bottom were as green as the flooding 
stream could make them. Along a sandy bank beyond the 
river, I could see the turkey vultures standing in a row with 
their broad wings spread to the sun, like Roman legionaries 


72 


with shields upon their arms. Great blue herons were 
flying about everywhere, and sometimes they would allow 
us to ride close to them as they stood among the rushes. 
After the sun had sunk below the near-by crest, a troop of 
white pelicans—hundreds of them—soared past us in the glow 
that came over the hill-top. Despite their size and weight 
they flew with all the grace and ease of gulls, and far more 
majestically. : 

About the time that the nighthawks began to fly, we made 
camp. While our simple supper was cooking, I walked 
through the brush to the brink of the river. Strange cackles, 
whistles, and splashings came from the half-submerged islands 
and the tules. Coots were playing together in the twilight, 
and herons, plovers, and unfamiliar songbirds were making 
the semitropical night resound. The birds were succeeded 
by still more unfamiliar frogs, which croaked and whistled 
until after dark. All night we were hot, and mosquitos made 
us more or less restless. 

Next morning we passed for several hours alternately 
through jungle-like, river-bottom vegetation, and over bare, 
stony ridges. Wherever the ground was moist there was a 
riot of flowers. Bordering some of the sloughs were rows 
of the little, pink-blossomed Sessweiwm sessile, a plant related 
to the sea purslane of our eastern salt marshes. 

About nine o’clock we crossed the low mountain-pass, 
leading our steeds by the bridles, and came presently to the 
habitation of Papa Laguna, who was standing under the porch 
of his hut doing nothing, as usual. One hand was stretched 
to the rafters overhead in order to support comfortably his 
powerful, barrel-chested body. His sons and grandsons, in 
cow-punchers’ garb, were leading horses hither and thither, 
or standing around waiting for breakfast. One of them was 
amusing himself by throwing bits of caked earth atacat. This 
animal, with some pigeons, chickens, and nine or ten curs of 
all sizes, was eating under one of the shelters, and in the 
midst of them a rather fine-looking Indian girl was mixing 
dough. A number of children, mostly slightly cross-eyed, 
were also toddling about, while several girls of ten years or 


73 


more held young babies in their arms. Some of the children 
had silver medals of the Virgin strung from their necks. 

I watched one woman making griddle-cakes of a kind of 
fine meal. First she rolled and patted the unleavened dough 
into balls, then pinched and slapped these into very thin disks, 
which she cooked on a dry iron plate, turning them over a 
dozen times, and folding them twice at the end. All of the 
Indians were either too busy or too dignified to pay the 
shghtest attention to Pancho and me, except to say ‘‘ Buenos 
dias.’ The little girl, whose picture I had taken on the trip 
down, began to cry about something, and old Laguna at once 
left his orang-utan position under the rafters, and went to 
comfort her. He seemed very grandfatherly. 

We bought a few potatoes, some sugar, and one large onion 
from Laguna for the high price of fifty cents, and then went on, 
passing several little cultivated patches belonging to the 
Indians. We also met two or three middle-aged men out 
hunting cottontails with bows and arrows. 

At the point of the Cocopahs, where we had met the 
rurales on our southward trip, the rising river had flooded the 
whole region, so that we had to force our animals to wade, 
or else to clamber along the rough mountain-side. The whole 
enswamped desert was merry with red-winged blackbirds, 
coots, and killdeers. Many of the last pattered along just 
a few feet ahead of us, uttering their plaintive calls. 

We lunched within sight of the Cerro Prieto, and had 
scarcely renewed our journey when a strange, wild sound of 
high-pitched singing came down the trail from the northward. 
A moment later a large burro, with an Indian boy and girl 
on its back, trotted into sight. Behind them came another 
burro with a young man seated far back on its haunches. 
The three Indians were singing at the tops of their lungs in 
weird, falsetto voices, and they were dressed as if for a celebra- 
tion, with red and green cotton choths bound round their hair, 
and two red stripes, bordered withnarrow linesof yellow, painted 
across their faces from ear to ear. They barely interrupted 
their singing to exchange a buenos dias as they trotted past, 
and for a long time the wind brought us snatches of their 
expressive music. 


74 


At the last bend of Hardy’s Colorado, with Signa] Mountain 
on the border in full view, we gave our tired animals plenty 
of time to drink, for the next water would be twenty-four 
hours beyond. 

When we had left the eastern point of the Cocopahs well 
behind, the wind began to blow strongly from the west, soon 
increasing to a gale. The sky remained clear, except that a 
yellow circle of dust-laden air obscured the horizon, and so 
much fine sand was flying that one had to face to leeward 
to breathe. Eventually the wind became so strong that the 
yielding creosote bushes flattened almost against the ground, 
and I could scarcely sit on my poor horse, who kept his nose 
turned way from the blast. All the while the sun was shining 
brightly, and the storm recalled the description of the dry 
gale off Point Concepcion in “‘Three Years before the Mast.” 
Finally we camped in as sheltered a spot as could be found. 
The wind howled until midnight, after which it calmed. 

A seven hours’ march next morning brought us to the > 
first irrigation ditch, at the edge of civilization. After water- 
ing the animals here, we passed once more through the 
wonderful alfalfa fields, filled with fat cattle and round horses 
that were in such strong contrast to our jaded brutes. Scaup 
ducks and coots were resting contentedly on one of the ponds, 
and another was filled with long-legged, wading stilts, a rare 
sight in their white and sable plumage. Half a dozen road- 
runners scurried along the ruts of the highway that led us into 
Mexicali, which we reached at noon. 

On April 23, Mrs. Murphy and I began a second journey 
into Baja California, taking only a light outfit on two pack- 
burros. We turned eastward at a point north of the Cerro 
Prieto, crossed the stagnant sloughs of the New River, the 
salty waters of which were unfit even for our animals, and 
spent several days in the vicinity of Volcano Lake. . This 
fluctuating reservoir of river water, with its adjacent mud 
volcanoes and hot, sulphurous springs, lies on the crest that 
divides the Salton Basin from the fan of the Colorado Delta. 
The extraordinary topographic, geologic, and botanic fea- 
tures of the region have been well described by MacDougal 
(1906, 1914), and Barrows (1900). 


“LUSH . “AHLYUOMULON FAUV ‘NYOH LHDIN DAHL NO DNOUd 


ONIGNOOYUUNNS AHL HO THAGT AHL MOTGE LAG AAA LOOGV AUVINAWATdHI OS VY FO AONASHUd DHL ANV ‘ANII-GINW DHL GUVM 
qOOLS UALVYM AHL FO WOVANNOS AHL NAHM ‘CI6I ‘Wud V NI -OL AIdUYVHS GNU HOIHM ‘SONOUd AHL AO NOILLIGNOO HY, 
ATUVA NAMVLI SVM HdVUYOOLOHd AH], ‘“NISVG WILLVqd AO LuVvd “WOUSOAYY NATMOOUG AHL NI MON ANY “LI6I “HOUV IN NI NISVG 
NUALSAMHLOOS AHL NI ‘a TOHUALV AM SOZOqg Sduy, ta U—Z VI HLLLY qd NI LOHS ona NYOHONOUd GALNOOW V JO GvVay{T—'T “OTH 


“A oid 


Loe : 
ma Ps 


Ena, 


Pir 


75 


At this late date the swelling river had overflowed a broad 
margin of the desert, which was consequently covered with 
fresh, green vegetation, and alive with waterfowl and song- 
birds. ‘Teal, ibises, coots, avocets, and stilts, in vast numbers, 
all more or less indifferent toward the presence of human 
beings, were feeding along every shoreline; cormorants, gulls, 
and terns were noisy and abundant about Volcano Lake; 
yellow-headed blackbirds, blue grosbeaks, swallows, and other 
new arrivals from the tropics, swarmed over the verdure on 
the flood-plain. Further back from the life-giving Hardy, 
on the thirsty stretches towards the base of the Cocopahs, the 
shrivelled herbage gave evidence that the ephemeral desert 
springtime was fast passing. 


On THE LOWER CALIFORNIAN PRONGHORN. 


The Lower Californian antelope was described as a distinct 
subspecies, Antilocapra americana peninsularis, by Nelson 
(1912), who pointed out that the race had closer affinities 
with the pronghorn of the western United States than with 
the one inhabiting the Mexican tableland. Phillips (1913) 
subsequently confirmed the validity of peninsularis by citing 
diagnostic cranial characters. The topotypes came from the 
middle part of the peninsula, but the describer states that the 
range of this antelope extends northward ‘‘on the gulf side to 
beyond 32° [north latitude], to the southern end of the Colo- 
rado Desert.”’ 

Within ten years pronghorn antelopes were abundant in 
Pattie Basin, but they have now been shot down to a poor 
remnant, along with the mountain sheep and other mammals 
that yield meat or trophies. Pronghorns in particular, judging: 
from their history in our western states, seem literally to 
wither away before the onslaughts of hunters, their exceed- 
ingly delicate adjustment to a rather limited environment, 
and consequent non-adaptability, doubtless contributing much 
toward their rapid extermination. Nelson predicts a brief 
and unfortunate future for the Lower Californian race, and, 
in a territory without game laws, the fulfilment of his prophecy 
is more likely to be hastened than delayed. 


76 


During eleven days in the habitat of peninsularis, I saw 
between fifty and sixty pronghorns, most often singly, but 
sometimes in groups of two or three. Only once we observed 
no fewer than eight in one band, two or more of which were 
bucks; and on another occasion Mr. Rockwell killed a doe 
that was in company with four other animals. All that we 
encountered, with one exception, were hopelessly wild—as 
wary and frightened, indeed, as even such shy ungulates could 
well be. Moreover, they seemed to absent themselves for 
days together from large tracts of country through which 
we had hunted but once or twice. Under such circumstances, 
our opportunity for coming into close contact with them was 
very limited. Yet it seems worth while to record such scanty 
observations as I was able to make, together with brief 
data gleaned from the experience of Captain Funcke, who, 
in 1912, collected the type specimen of the peninsular sub- 
species. 

A fact of particular interest with regard to the Lower 
Californian pronghorn is that the season of the birth of its 
young seems to be three or four months earlier than the normal 
period for antelopes along the Mexican border of the United 
States. During our hunting in Pattie Basin, April 1-12, 1915, 
we frequently observed the tracks of does and fawns together. 
On April 4, our Mexican horse wrangler shot a fawn which 
he found sleeping among the creosote bushes. Three days 
later Captain Funcke collected two others of approximately 
the same size as the first. 

The three fawns were very nearly half-grown. It was 
evident that they had all been weaned, for their stomachs 
-were filled with finely-chopped, bright green, fleshy leaves, 
the whole mass being in a thick fluid state. I examined this 
pabulum carefully, and found only fragments of succulent 
leaves, with no trace of grass. 

The first fawn was a male; the second two, which may 
have been twin sisters, were females. All three were just 
under a meter long, from nose to base of tail. The skull of 
the largest fawn was 185 mm. in extreme length, and 92 mm. 
in breadth across the orbits. The horn knobs of each animal 


77 


were barely perceptible to the touch, but the little hillocks 
of bone were quite distinct on the skulls. The pelage was 
dense, and attained a length of 88 mm. on the flanks, but there 
was no suggestion of underfur. 

Captain Funcke felt quite certain that our three fawns 
had been born not later than the middle of February, which 
he said was the normal time of year for the Lower Californian 
subspecies. If one were to judge by analogy with the fawns 
of white-tailed deer, the young antelopes would have been 
called at least three months of age. Now throughout the 
western United States, and wherever antelopes occur along 
the Mexican border, June is the month in which most of the 
young are born. Only rarely are the fawns known to have 
come into the world as early as May, although the birth 
season may be greatly extended at its later end. Mearns 
(1907), for instance, once observed near the Mexican line a 
doe antelope with two small fawns on September 23, and he 
took both large and small fetuses from females killed in June. 

Owing to the size and probable age of our fawns, the circum- 
stances under which they were taken, and the corroborative 
evidence of such hoof-prints as we saw, there can be little 
doubt that they were still in the care of their mothers, and 
that they had been merely temporarily left to themselves. 
The doe antelope’s custom of leaving her fawns in hiding, 
usually at some little distance from one another, while she 
forages for herself, is well known. Hofer (1899) describes 
with what watchfulness and subtlety a doe returns to the 
place where her young are patiently awaiting her, concealed 
rather by their own quietness than by any cover. He states 
that the fawns go down on their knees, like lambs, to suckle, 
and that if the family becomes alarmed while the youngsters 
are nursing or playing, they ‘“‘drop, as if shot, never stopping 
to fold a leg under them, but flattening themselves on the 
ground.” It was in just such a ‘“‘frozen’’ posture that our 
Mexican found the first victim. 

In February, according to Captain Funcke, the Lower 
Californian antelope does are harried continually by the 
pestiferously abundant coyotes, which eat the afterbirth and 


78 


try to steal the young fawns. The tactics of a doe in defending 
her family from a dog are sympathetically described by Hofer, 
but no doubt an antelope mother would put up a more 
desperate fight against coyotes alone than against a dog in 
the presence of its human master. 

The ecologic significance of a birth season four months 
earlier at the southern end of the Colorado Desert than along 
various parts of the Mexican border is still to be divined. 
Doubtless, however, it has a close relation to the grow- 
ing season of the annual plants, and is secondarily con- 
nected with the extraordinarily hot, dry summer climate 
of the northern Lower Californian deserts. The difference in 
the time of this most important of all functions must, of course, 
affect the antelope’s whole life history. It must relegate the 
rutting period to early summer, instead of September or 
October as in the western United States; furthermore, it 
might be expected to have an effect upon the season of the 
molt and the dropping of the horns. 

Little specific information appears to have been published 
regarding the food plants of the pronghorn antelope. Caton 
(1877) writes that the wild herds live on “buffalo grass,” and 
that captive specimens in his deer-park grazed freely upon 
standing blue grass, and also ate hay. Hornaday (1908) 
found the antelopes in the Pinacate section of Sonora cropping 
a species of desert plantain (Plantago) that grew in the lava 
fields. The Lower Californian animals undoubtedly subsist 
throughout most of the year upon various kinds of sun-cured 
vegetation, but during the brief spring season of verdure they 
seem to prefer tender leafage. Although desert bunch-grass, 
called by the Mexicans ‘‘ guayeta,’’ was common in scattered 
patches on the lower slopes of Pattie Basin, I looked in vain 
for evidence that the antelopes had fed upon it. Captain 
Funcke maintained that they ate no grass at any season of the 
year. The foliage of the trailing, lavender-flowered ‘four 
o’clock,”’ Abronia villosa, which grew in sandy parts of the 
Creosote Association, was a favorite forage. Another plant 
that they crushed and mouthed, apparently for the moisture 
it contained, was the desert broom-rape, Orobanche multiflora, 


79 


a parasite on the roots of other species. We found many of 
its flowering heads, uprooted and chewed, in the wake of 
browsing antelopes. Captain Funcke informed me that he 
had also seen the animals eating leaves of the ironwood 
(Olneya tesota). 

During feeding hours the adult pronghorns lie down to 
rest a dozen times a day, always starkly in the open, ten or 
twenty yards from cover, doubtless from fear of the pumas 
(Felis improcera) which sometimes prowl down from the hills. 
At noon of the hottest days we found the antelope’s fresh 
beds in the most unshaded situations. Captain Funcke said 
that through the night, too, they slumber only in exposed 
places, and by daybreak they begin to browse. Usually we 
were able to distinguish fresh tracks from those several hours 
old by the moistness of the droppings, which would be found 
at rather frequent intervals in depressions that the antelopes 
had scratched in the soil. 

Although pronghorns are known to be able to drink bitter 
alkaline water, and are said to repair periodically to regular 
watering places, there can be little doubt that those of the 
Pattie Basin do not drink at all during the greater part of 
the year. Nelson (1911) states specifically that the Lower 
Californian deer are mainly xerophilous, and he infers the 
same of the antelopes. On the southwestern slopes of Pattie 
Basin there is certainly no water between the mountain 
tinajas and the Tres Pozos, and the tracks of antelopes have 
never been observed to lead to either source. Captain Funcke 
told me, however, that in mid-summer, when the vegetation is 
parched and the Laguna Salada has been filled from distant 
Rocky Mountain snow fields, small bands of them occasionally 
go down to the shores of the flooded plain. 


Since the above was set in type, Captain Funcke has sent 
eight adult Lower Californian pronghorns—six bucks and two 
does—to the Brooklyn Museum. ‘These were all killed on the 
western side of Pattie Basin between March 16 and March 
25,1917. All were shedding the hair when killed, although 
one buck and one doe had only just begun. The others have 


80 


more or less extensive patches of the short summer pelage. 
The molting period of peninsularis, therefore, nearly or quite 
coincides with that of mexicana (cf. Mearns, 1907, 224). 

Captain Funcke took the following measurements of these 
specimens immediately after killing them. 


Measurements in inches of eight pronghorns. 


19 | 29 |jsel4zalsealee 7a| Bo 


Nose to base of tail along back.| 50 53 48 | 54 | 53 48 | 47 49 


Circumference of throat....... Baer Pies Ef os co ee oa ie Ae) 
Circumference base of neck....| 183 | 20 | 21 | 24 | 23 | 21] 22 | 22% 
Circumference upper fore leg...| 84 9 9 (10 9 9| 8&8 9 
Circumference of chest. .;.....| Sag. | 3¢ 11d \988 |uo65 oles a) wee 
Circumference at belly........ 37 39 37 | 39 | 38 37 | 36 38 


Circumference upper hind leg. .| 13 132>) 14.115) 4), 15. Wo bes ae 


Neither female has horns, and among the six male animals 
there is not a single normal pair. Five of the bucks have 
horns which lack true prongs, and which are short, much thick- 
ened, and covered with clumsy excrescenses resembling rudi- 
mentary tines. In the sixth the horns are of the usual form 
excepting that the prongs are bent sharply inward and that 
the right horn bears a small supplementary prong 61 mm. 
above the first. The curve and twist of the two horns are, 
moreover, asymmetrical. These characters.show in the ac- 
companying illustration. The dimensions in millimeters of 
this pair of horns are as follows. 


R L 
Length of horns around curve.............. 295 297 
Straight line, tips te base... 2.48 228 ean eo 196 
Girth iof norms atbase. 023-244 eke ee teen 149 
Base to superior base of prong............. 133 140 
Width iof prone. 2.1.2.0 5e ose ans ie Rae ee 50 
ppread-oMhorns at Tips.) 364. see eee ee (151 
Spread at widest part 2.2. ok. ae. es sieaeeei ee eee 


ANNOTATED LIST OF THE BIRDS. 


In the following list, the records of Stone and Rhoads (1905) 
have been incorporated with my own observations. It should 
be noted that Rhoads’s expedition was made in February, 
1905, before the Colorado River had been diverted from its 
old bed at the eastern margin of the delta, and at about the 


Plate VI. 


Fig. 1—NoonpDAY CAMP AT THE TRES Pozos Oasis, Aprin 1, 1915. THE TREES ARE HALF DEAD 
MESQUITES, BEARING MASSES OF MISTLETOE. THE LOW VEGETATION IN THE 
FOREGOUND IS PROBABLY Atriplex lentiformis. 


Fig. 2.—A LARGE AND LUXURIANT MESQUITE OF THE UPPER WASH ASSOCIATION, APPROXIMATELY 
SEVEN MILES SOUTHWEST OF THE TRES PoOzOS. SUCH TREES ARE CHARACTERISTIC OF 
PRACTICALLY THE WHOLE DETRITAL OUTWASH EAST OF THE TINAJA MOUNTAINS. 


81 


time of the beginning of the flooding of the Salton Basin. 
The meteorological conditions that prevailed during his visit 
were of almost unprecedented rainfall and cold, with “ice in 
the coffee-pot”’ on February 13. 

The writer’s observations were made on the last three days 
of March and throughout the month of April, 1915. Weather 
conditions were normal, with only one slight shower of rain 
late in April. 

The combined list of birds is, of course, fragmentary, and 
based upon insufficient collecting; yet it is undoubtedly worth 
publishing since it includes names of between thirty-five and 
forty species not observed by Grinnell during his exhaustive 
field work in the lower Colorado Valley, February 14 to May 
15,1910. The list is presented with the hope of early revision 
and extension. 


1. Podilymbus podiceps.. Prep-BILLED GRrEBE.—Observed 
several times on Hardy’s Colorado in April. Rhoads 
collected one specimen at the mouth of the river on 
February 11. 

2. Larus occidentalis. WrsTERN GuLu.—“ Very abundant 
on the Colorado and its tributaries”? (Rhoads). 

3. Larus argentatus. Hbmrrina Guiu.—A few observed on 
both the Colorado and the Hardy by Rhoads. 

4. Larus californicus. CALIFORNIA GuLL.—Observed by 
Rhoads. 

5. Larus heermanni. HrERMANN’S GuLL.—Observed by 
Rhoads as far up the Colorado as Yuma. 

6. Larus philadelphia. Bonapartre’s GuLu.—One adult, 
black-headed bird was seen at Volcano Lake, April 25. 
Two examples in a half-starved condition were col- 
lected by Rhoads in February. 

7. Sterna caspia. Caspian TeRN.—Several seen at Volcano. 
Lake, April 25. 

8. Sterna elegans. ELEGANT TERN.—Rhoads writes, ‘A 
few terns were seen in pairs on all the waters visited, 
either S. elegans or S. dougalli or both.”? The former 
species is common in the Gulf of California, while 
dougallz is an Atlantic coast tern, and the possibility 
of its occurrence in the delta need hardly be considered. 


10; 


ile 


16. 


82 


. Sterna antillarum. Least Trern.—“‘ Three or four very 


small terns were probably this species’? (Rhoads). 

Phalacrocorax auritus albociliatus. FARALLON CoR- 
MORANT. 

Phalacrocorax mexicanus Stone and Rhoads, 687. 

Abundant throughout the delta, flocks being ob- 
served daily along the Hardy and at Volcano Lake. 
The specific and subspecific status of the inland cor- 
morant of this region has been settled by the collections 
of numerous ornithologists. 

Pelecanus erythrorhynchos. WuitTr Pruican.—Com- 
mon in the delta. We frequently observed large 
flocks, and Rhoads records groups of “‘ half athéusand”’ 
feeding with the cormorants. 


. Mergus americanus. Mrrcanser.—A few seen by 


Rhoads. 


. Mergus serrator. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. — 


‘“Many” (Rhoads). 


. Anas platyrhynchos. Mautitarp.—“Abundant” 


(Rhoads). 


. Mareca americana. Bautppate.—On March 29, a large 


flock of Baldpates was seen feeding on a pond in an 
alfalfa field, six miles south of Mexicali. 

Nettion carolinense. GREEN-WINGED ‘THAL.—Several 
flocks observed by Rhoads. The Green-winged Teal 
is said to be one of the most abundant wintering 
species in the Imperial Valley, and large numbers of 
them, with other ducks, are shot on the Mexican side 
of the line to supply the market. ‘There are no game- 
protective laws in Baja California, and pot-hunting is 
further encouraged by planters whose fields lie in 
Mexican territory. The result is that an extensive 
slaughter of ducks occurs all winter, the birds being 
admitted through the United States customs. Captain 
Funcke informed me that he had himself shot ducks 
and geese in Mexicali for the Los Angeles wholesalers, 
and that he had sometimes killed as many as sixty 
birds from the massed flocks with the five shells in 
his automatic gun. 


17. 


13; 
12. 


20. 


21. 


22. 


23. 


24. 


25. 


26. 


ai. 


28. 


29. 


53 


Querquedula cyanoptera. CINNAMON TwAL.—Several 
seen feeding among the grasses along the overflow of 
the Hardy, near Volcano Lake, on April 26. 

Spatula clypeata. SHoVELER.—‘“‘Several’’ (Rhoads). 

Dafila acuta. PinTart.—Several of both sexes observed 
in the alfalfa fields south of Mexicali, March 29. Also 
seen by Rhoads in February. 

Marila americana. REDHEAD.—Observed sparingly in 
the irrigation ponds south of Mexicali up to the end 
of April. I photographed a pair on April 15, the 
birds being not at all shy. 

Marila affinis. Lrsspr Scaup Duck.—Observed on the 
ponds south of Mexicali, where one specimen, a female, 
was collected on March 29. . 

Erismatura jamaicensis. Ruppy Ducx.—Recorded 
without comment by Stone and Rhoads. 

Chen hyperboreus hyperboreus. SNowWw GoosE.— 
Rhoads saw great flocks going northward over the 
southern Cocopahs, and also near the mouth of the 
Hardy. 

Branta canadensis subsp.—‘‘A form of this species was 
continually going toward the coast from the delta, 
mostly at great elevations’’ (Rhoads). 

Plegadis guarauna. WHITE-FACED GLossy Isis. — A 
dozen or more were observed feeding along the over- 
flow of the Hardy, near Volcano Lake, on April 26. 

Mycteria americana. Woop Isis. 

Tantalus loculator? Stone and Rhoads, 688. 
‘A few seen’? (Rhoads). 

Ixobrychus exilis. Least Birrrrn.—One seen along the 
overflow of the Hardy, April 26. 

Ardea herodias herodias. Great Buur HEeron.—Com- 
mon all along the Hardy; observed many times during 
both the southward and the return trip. 

Herodias egretta. Haret.—First seen when we reached 
the Hardy, on March 30. A month later I en- 
countered many more, once in company with the 
following species, in the marshes south of Volcano 


84 


Lake. On April 26, Mrs. Murphy and I met a 
Cocopah Indian, armed with a rickety old shotgun, 
who was stalking these herons for their plumes. 

30. Egretta candidissima candidissima. Snowy EarretT.— 
One seen flying over the delta on April 1, and others 
near Volcano Lake late in the month. They were 
exceedingly shy, but on April 26 I managed to ap- 
proach within two hundred feet of one as it fed in a 
lagoon. 

There are no laws to protect the white herons of 
Baja California, but, when granting us permission to 
enter the country, Colonel Cantu, the Military Com- 
mandant, requested us not to molest any of these 
birds. 

A certain amount of hunting for the nuptial plumes 
of both species of egret goes on every spring in the 
heart of the delta. Old Laguna, the Indian mentioned 
in my narrative, had a small bundle of the exquisite 
feathers which he tried to sell to Captain Funcke. 
Much of this contraband is smuggled across the inter- 
national boundary from Mexicali, and more from Tia 
Juana, near San Diego. As authority for this state- 
ment, I have the word of a man who has more than 
once accomplished the act. In Calexico I heard the 
boast that ‘‘every woman in town”’ possessed a bunch 
of “aigrettes,” all of. which had, of course, been 
brought into the country illicitly. These facts tend 
to prove that, in the suppression of the plume trade, 
the creation of a strong public sentiment is quite as 
important as a rigid enforcement of the law. 

31. Butorides virescens anthonyie ANTHONY’S GREEN 
Hrron.—Common all along Hardy’s Colorado in 
April. Not observed by Rhoads in February. 

o2. Nycticorax nycticorax nevius. BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT 
Herron.—‘‘ Without exception the most abundant 
water bird on the river” (Rhoads). Strangely enough, 
I saw this heron only along the irrigation canals south 
of Mexicali, during the latter part of April. 


30. 


34. 


30. 


36. 


3”. 


Oo. 


39. 


85 


Nyctanassa violacea? YELLOW-CROWNED Nicut HErR- 
on.—Some of the night herons seen by Rhoads “ap- 
peared to belong to the yellow-crowned species.”’ The 
delta region is, however, far north of the known winter 
range of violacea. 

Grus mexicana. SANDHILL CRAaNE.—‘“ Abundant” 
(Rhoads). This species is at best a winter resident, 
and was not observed by the writer in April. Accord- 
ing to Grinnell (1914, 120), moreover, the migrant 
cranes of the Colorado Valley are more likely to be 
Grus canadensis than Grus mexicana. | 

Porzana carolina. Sora.—Several were seen on the flats 
of Hardy’s Colorado, where I collected a single female 
on the evening of March 30. 

Fulica americana. Coot.—Exceedingly abundant on 
all waterways—the Hardy River and its sloughs, the 
edges of Voleano Lake, and the irrigation ditches and 
ponds. It seems strange that the Coot does not 
appear in Rhoads’s list. 

Steganopus tricolor. WuLson’s PHALAROPE.—At a dis- 
tance of only a few feet, I watched a Wilson’s Phala- 
rope in an irrigation pond on the United States- 
Mexico border, on April 14. The lone Phalarope was 
in company with a large flock of Black-necked 
Stilts. 

Recurvirostra americana. Avocrnt.—Common at Vol- 
cano Lake, and along the overflow of the Hardy, on 
April 25 and 26. Not observed by Rhoads in Febru- 
ary. : 

Himantopus mexicanus. BLACK-NECKED STILT.—A 
flock of about thirty adults and three downy young 
was seen in a pond on the border, at Mexicali, on 
April 14. The young birds were evidently newly- 
hatched, and were swimming among their long-legged, 
wading elders. This observation constitutes perhaps 
the earliest breeding record for the species. 

We found Black-necked Stilts abundant along the 
flooding Hardy during the latter part of April. 


40. 


Al. 


43. 


44. 


45. 


86 


Pisobia minutilla. Least SANDPIPER —Several small 
flocks seen about irrigation ponds south of Mexicali, 
where specimens were shot on March 29. They were 
still in winter plumage. This species was also ob- 
served by Rhoads. 

Catoptrophorus semipalmatus inornatus. WrESTERN 
WILLET.—One, “‘the only one noted,’’ was collected 
by Rhoads at the mouth of the Hardy. 


. Actitis macularia. SPOTTED SANDPIPER.—Common 
along the Hardy and at Volcano Lake. 
Numenius hudsonicus. HupsonNIAN CURLEW.—TIwo 


flocks seen by Rhoads on the Hardy. 

Oxyechus vociferus. KiILLDEER.—Very abundant, not 
only along the river, but also in the cultivated fields 
on the Mexican side of the boundary line, where they 
seemed to be breeding. A male was collected on 
March 30. 

Lophortyx gambeli. Drsertr Quaiu.—A plentiful bird 
throughout the entire region, occurring most abun- 
dantly in the densely grown strips along the river, but 
being common also in the creosote patches of the 
open desert, and still more so in the higher parts of 
the Wash Association on the western slopes of Pattie 
Basin. 

Fourteen specimens of the Desert Quail were pre- 
served. All were in breeding condition, as evidenced 
by the gonads, and several of the females had large 
bare patches on the belly. The crops of the speci- 
mens taken early in April were mostly crammed with 
caterpillars of the genus Hemileuca, assorted sizes of 
which were at that time marching in legions across 
the desert. Later in the month the birds were found 
to have fed chiefly upon seeds of some sort. Rhoads 
noted that the berries of the mistletoe furnished them 
with a staple food supply in winter, and Grinnell (1914) 
found the new foliage of the mesquite, as well as 
mistletoe berries, in their stomachs. 

One statement by Grinnell (op. cit., 122), namely 


87 


that these birds ‘‘apparently need to drink both morn- 
ing and evening,’ is impossible for me to believe. 
Our first camp in the antelope country southwest of 
Pattie Basin, April 1-6, was upwards of twenty miles 
from the river, seven miles from the miserable hole 
of the Tres Pozos, ten miles from the Laguna Salada, 
and an equal distance from the nearest mountain 
“tinaja.”’ The soil was everywhere sandy and porous; 
not a suggestion of moisture was to be detected even 
in the beds of the deepest barrancas. Yet Desert 
Quail were abundant at all hours about our camp, and 
male birds sat on selected perches in the big mesquite 
and ironwood trees, and yelped by the hour, not only 
morning and evening, but often all night long as well. 
A secret source of water in that country is almost as 
much out of the question as a periodical excursion of 
fourteen miles to and from the Tres Pozos. I think it 
exceedingly likely that the quail in such remote parts 
of the desert obtained their moisture in the form of 
dew or of young and succulent leaves. 

The birds are commonly reported to sleep on the 
ground after the manner of our eastern Bob-white. 
In the bottom-land at the base of the Borrego Peak 
of the Cocopahs, however, I found Desert Quail roost- 
ing all night in the upper branches of large ironwood 
trees. 

46. Zenaidura macroura marginella. WursterRN MourninG 
Dove.—Not uncommon, especially among the creo- 
sotes and scattered mesquites along the cut of the 
New River. They were usually seen in pairs, and 
those collected were all breeding birds. A male, 
whose crop was filled with mistletoe berries, was shot 
on April 7 at the base of the Tinaja Mountains, south- 
west of Pattie Basin. 

47. Scardafella inca. Inca Dove.—A few were seen by 
Rhoads in the upper Hardy River region. 

48. Gymnogyps californianus. CaALIrorNIA Conpor.—One 
was seen by Rhoads from his camp on Mount Mayor, 
Cocopah Mountains. 


49. 


53. 


54. 


50. 


56. 


57. 


58. 


59. 


88 


Cathartes aura septentrionalis. Turkey VULTURE.— 
Common. Our attention was frequently attracted to 
them by the rushing sound of their wings as they 
swooped through the still desert air. The exposed 
sandbars of the delta seemed to be favorite resting 
places, bands of the birds standing in rows and sunning 
themselves in such situations. 

On April 18, Mr. Rockwell wounded an antelope 
doe which escaped over rocky ground, leaving no trail 
either of hoof mark or blood. On the following day he 
discovered the body of the animal, but the Turkey 
Vultures had destroyed it. 


. Elanus leucurus. WHITE-TAILED KITE.—Seen twice 


along the Hardy by Rhoads. 


. Circus hudsonius. MarsuH Hawk.— “Frequent” 
(Rhoads). 
. Accipiter velox. SHARP-SHINNED Hawx.—“ Rarely 


seen’? by Rhoads, who shot one specimen on the 
Colorado River. 

Accipiter cooperi. Cooprmr’s Hawx.—‘‘Several noted” 
(Rhoads). This species breeds in the timbered bottom- 
lands of the Colorado Valley (cf. Grinnell, 124). 

Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi. Harris’s HAwx.—Noted 
several times on the western slopes of Pattie Basin, 
usually seated upon some low perch. On April 8 I 
rode my horse within a few yards of one as it sat 
unconcernedly on a creosote bush not more than three 
feet above the ground. 

Rhoads found this hawk numerous. 

Buteo borealis calurus. WESTERN Rep-Tart.—‘‘ Abun- 
dant’’ (Rhoads). 

Buteo lineatus elegans. REpD-BELLIED HAwx.—“Sey- 
eral’? (Rhoads). 


Buteo swainsoni. SwaiInson’s Hawk.—‘ Several” 
(Rhoads). 
Buteo platypterus. Broap-winceD Hawxk.—‘‘Two or 


three seen’”’ (Rhoads). 
Aquila chrysaétos. GoLpEN Eacie.—‘‘At Mount Ma- 
jor”? (Rhoads). 


60. 


61. 


62. 


635. 


64. 


65. 


66. 


67. 


68. 


89 


Halizetus leucocephalus leucocephalus. Bautp EAGLE. 
—‘‘One seen twice, or else two individuals, on the 
upper Hardy River. Stated to be very rare by our 
Indian guide” (Rhoads). 

Falco sparverius phalena. Drsmert SpARROW HawKk.— 
Seen but once—on the western slopes of Pattie Basin, 
April 9. 

Rhoads obtained specimens along the Hardy. 

Polyborus cheriway. AUpUBON’s CaARACARA.—‘“‘ Only 
two seen on the upper Hardy” (Rhoads). 

Pandion haliaétus carolinensis. Osprey.—‘‘Seen only 
at Mount Major” (Rhoads). 

Aluco pratincola. Barn Owu.—‘One seen above the 
Colony”’ (Rhoads). 

The ‘‘Colony”’ is a locality on the eastern side of 
the delta, the most southerly point at which the old, 
now abandoned bed of the Colorado River cuts the 
Sonoran Mesa. 

Asio flammeus. SHORT-EARED Owxi.—“ A few seen near 
the mouth of the Hardy” (Rhoads). 

Otus asio cineraceus. MrxIcaAN SCREECH OWL.— 
‘‘Heard several times’’ (Rhoads). 

Bubo virginianus pallescens. WESTERN HoRNED OWL. 
—Rhoads found this species abundant, and nesting at 
the time of his visit. Two specimens were col- 
lected. 

Speotyto cunicularia hypogea. BurRrRowine Owu.—Not 
uncommon along the dry cuts of the New River, south 
of Mexicali, and in the creosote and mesquite tracts 
between the boundary line and the Cerro Prieto 
(Black Butte). I rode my horse almost over two or 
three as they stood on the ground watching me. 
One was seen perching on the top of a dead mesquite 
on the afternoon of March 29, and I shot a breeding 
male in flight at noon of April 19. 

We saw no trace of Burrowing Owls between 
Hardy’s Colorado and the Cocopahs, or in Pattie 
Basin. The species was not observed by Rhoads. 


69. 


(pes 


74, 


90 


Geococcyx californianus. RoapDRUNNER.—Noted now 
and again along the Hardy River, but more frequently 
about the edges of the cultivated country in the 
Mexican portion of the Imperial Valley. I often saw 
the Roadrunners travelling along the ramparts of the 
irrigation canals. A breeding female was collected 
near Laguna’s camp on March 31, and a male on the 
outskirts of Mexicali, April 19. 


. Ceryle alcyon. Brutep KINGFIsHER.—One seen at Vol- 


cano Lake, April 25. Rhoads saw the species fre- 
quently in the delta. 


. Dryobates scalaris lucasanus. San Lucas Woop- 


PECKER.—A black and white woodpecker observed 
several times along the eastern base of the Cocopahs 
was doubtless the San Lucas Woodpecker, for Stone 
identified Rhoads’s four specimens as this subspecies. 

Centurus uropygialis. Gita WoopDPECKER.—Frequently 
seen between the Hardy and the Cocopahs. Rhoads 
collected specimens which had been feeding on mistle- 
toe berries. 


. Phalenoptilus nuttalli subsp —Two large Caprimulgids 


seen just before dusk near our first night camp in the 
Cahuilla Basin, March 29, were presumably some form 
of Poor-will. 

Chordeiles acutipennis texensis. Trxas NIGHTHAWK. 
—My two skins, both breeding males, were collected 
on the western slopes of Pattie Basin on April 6 and 12 
respectively. In measurements the specimens are 
somewhat intermediate between texensis and the more 
southerly form inferior. Indeed, I believe that knowl- 
edge of the locality in which the birds were taken 
would be necessary to the systematist who might 
hope to relegate them to their proper subspecies. 

Nighthawks were abundant throughout the entire 
region visited, resting by day under the creosote 
bushes, and coming forth by the thousand at about 
the same moment just after sunset A curious point 
that I noted about their flight was that the birds often 


91 


glided with their wings pointed downward at a sharp 
angle. In the narrative I have recorded my impres- 
sion of their booming. 

Rhoads saw only two or three Nighthawks in Febru- 
ary, 1905, when the majority of the birds may have 
been in a more southern latitude. They arrive in 
the Imperial Valley each spring about the middle of 
March. 

75. Calypte costa. Costa’s Hummincpirp.—One of these 
hummers was observed poising before a white lily 
near the Tres Pozos, on April 9. Rhoads collected 
two at Mount Mayor, and wrote, ‘‘ These tiny birds 
were breeding, one of the specimens shot showing 
bodily marks of protracted incubation on the 21st of 
February.” 

76. Selasphorus rufus. Rurous HumMMINGBIRD.—One col- 
lected in the Cocopahs by Rhoads. He writes, ‘‘ This 
bird was going through its aerial love antics in Febru- 
ary with all the energy of a midsummer madness. 
This was the more remarkable as all other bird and 
animal life was in its deepest winter lethargy during 
my entire stay at this camp, and the temperature 
frequently fell to near 45°.” 

77. Tyrannus verticalis. ARKANSAS KINGBIRD.—One speci- 
men, a breeding male, taken near the Hardy on April 
1. Observed only in the bottom-land along the river. 

78. Myiarchus cinerascens cinerascens. ASH-THROATED 
FLYCATCHER.—Observed occasionally all along our 
route, but particularly common in the Wash Associa- 
tion on the western slopes of Pattie Basin. Here, in a 
locality at least ten miles from water, the Ash- 
throated Flycatchers were conspicuous in the mesquite 
and ironwood trees that margined the arroyos. Three 
breeding males were shot here on April 7, and a 
female was taken at the edge of the desert south of 
Mexicali on April 19. | 

All four specimens are smaller in the dimensions of 
wing and tail than the mean of a series of twenty-five 


92 


from the Colorado Valley above Yuma. For instance, 
the minimum measurements among fourteen male 
Colorado Valley birds are, wing 98 mm., tail 92 
(Grinnell, op. cit., 148). The averaged measurements 
of my three males are, wing 97.5, tail 86.7. 

79. Sayornis sayus. Say’s PH@sre.—Frequently observed 
by Rhoads on bluffs above the bottom-land. He 
collected two specimens. 

80. Sayornis nigricans. Buack PHa@sE.—Collected by 
Rhoads at the mouth of the Hardy and elsewhere in 
the delta. He writes, ‘“‘One of the most lively bits of 
bird life, which relieved the tedium of our boat 
journey, was the frequent sight of these birds sitting 
on the floating drift and hawking flies and other 
insects from the steaming surface of Colorado of a 
chilly morning.” 

81. Myiochanes richardsoni richardsoni. WESTERN Woop 
PEWEE.—One seen in a grove of eucalyptus trees, in 
the cultivated country south of Mexicali, on April 17. 

82. Pyrocephalus rubinus mexicanus. VERMILION FLyY- 
CATCHER.—Seen about six times in April, always on 
overflow land along the Hardy River. A favorite 
perch for the males was on dead limbs overhanging 
the stream. One in brilliant red plumage, but with 
a white chin, was taken on March 30. 

Rhoads collected several, and entered the following 
account in his journal: ‘‘ We were sure to find one or 
more pairs of these in the mesquite groves. They 
seem to continue their conjugal attachments all winter, 
some pairs being inseparable. They furnished the 
only strong bit of color to be seen in the wintry 
landscape of the Colorado delta in February. The 
males on warm days were performing their whimsical 
little flight songs and tumbling feats, but there was 
no other sign or suggestion that this had anything to 
do with sexual excitement.” 

83. Otocoris alpestris pallida. Sonora Hornep LarK.— 
Larks, presumably of this form, were first observed 


93 


along the eastern flanks of the Cocopah Mountains 
on April 1. Later, in the creosote tracts on the south- 

' western slopes of Pattie Basin, I frequently encoun- 
tered small flocks feeding on the more or less bare 
pebbly patches. Invariably I was armed only with 
a rifle on such occasions, and so I obtained no speci- 
mens. 

Otocoris alpestris pallida has been taken at Calexico, 
in the Imperial Valley, in winter (Van Rossem, 1913, 
132). 

84. Corvus corax sinuatus. Ravren.—This species was ob- 
tained at the mouth of the Hardy by Rhoads. He, 
as well as I, suspected the presence of C. cryptoleucus, 
which might be expected to breed in these Lower 
Sonoran deserts, but there are no specimens to estab- 
lish the fact. 

Ravens were fairly common in April all along the 
Hardy, and also in the ‘‘arboreal desert’’ west, of the 
Pattie Basin, where they breed. We found a half- 
completed nest on April 3, in an ironwood tree. On 
the evening of April 7, I saw nearly a dozen of the 
birds come to roost together in a compact clump of 
half-dead mesquites growing on a huge mound. 

Rhoads’s note on the Ravens is worth quoting: 
“While at Cocopah Major I was entertained by the 
love antics and really wonderful medley of sounds 
which a love-sick raven is able to make. Some of 
these are truly melodious modulations of the so-called 
‘croak,’ and run through quite a slice of the gamut. 
In addition to this they can tumble, twist, dive, soar 
and sport about the fleeting form of their mate with all 
the abandon and daring of less sedate and more 
elegant masters of the air.” 

85. Corvus sp.—Rhoads observed crows, probably Corvus 
brachyrhynchos hesperis. 

86. Molothrus ater obscurus. Dwarr Cowsirp.—Fre- 
quently observed. Collected by Rhoads in the delta, 
and by the writer on the western slopes of Pattie 


94 


Basin. A male specimen was accidentally destroyed, 
but a breeding female, taken on April 12, has a 
culmen of only 18 mm., or 1 mm. shorter than the 
minimum among twenty-two females from the lower 
Colorado Valley (Grinnell, op. cit., 160). 

87. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. YELLOW-HEADED 
BLACKBIRD.—First observed on my second trip to the 
Hardy River, where, on April 26, great flocks of 
Yellow-headed Blackbirds, associated with Red-wings, 
filled the vegetation above the newly flooded country 
near Volcano Lake. 

88. Agelaius phoeniceus sonoriensis. Sonora RED-wING.— 
Flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds were common along 
the Hardy during the latter part of April. I collected 
none, but Stone has identified Rhoads’s specimens as 
this form, after comparing them with skins of A. p. 
neutralis. Grinnell’s birds from the Colorado Valley 

. are likewise referable to sonoriensis. 

Neither this bird nor the preceding species was seen 
in the Pattie Basin, or at any other point away from 
the bottom-land of the river. 

89. Sturnella neglecta. WESTERN MEADOWLARK.—Seen 
only in the cultivated country in the Mexican portion 
of the Imperial Valley, where they were very abundant 
and in full song. Rhoads obtained several specimens 
at the mouth of the Hardy, but writes, ‘‘A rare bird 
except in open savannas along the Hardy River at two 
or three points.” 

90. Icterus cucullatus nelsoni. ArizoNA HoopED ORIOLE.— 
Observed sparingly in the Wash Association on the 
western slopes of Pattie Basin, particularly in the 
vicinity of the butte called the Caparote. At least 
six males were seen here on April 12. 

91. Euphagus cyanocephalus. Brrewerr’s BLACKBIRD.—“‘Al- 
ways abundant near human habitations” (Rhoads). 

92. Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis. CaLirornia LINNET. 
—Rhoads observed small flocks in the foothills, and 
collected three on Cocopah Mayor. 


93 


94 


95. 


95 


. Astragalinus lawrencei. LAWRENCE’S GOLDFINCH.— 


Rhoads collected specimens in the Cocopahs, and I am 
almost certain that I saw a number in dense mesquite 
thickets near the Hardy, on March 30. The species 
is probably only a winter visitant in the southern 
Colorado Desert. 


. Passerculus sandwichensis alaudinus. WrESTERN Sa- 


VANNAH SpPARROW.—Rhoads collected specimens in 
the delta. ‘‘This species, with flocks of Brewer’s and 
Chipping Sparrows and Abert’s Towhee, were in great 
numbers in some favorable mesquite bottoms where 
grass, weeds and mistletoe berries formed an abundant 
harvest.” 


Passerculus rostratus rostratus. LARGE-BILLED SPAR- 


row.—Rhoads took five typical specimens near the 
mouth of the Hardy. He noted that the birds were 
confined closely to the associations bordering the river. 

The species is a winter resident in the tules around 
fresh water in the Salton Sink. 


96. Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli. GAMBEL’S SPARROW. 


9G. 


Jey 


—Observed in the bottom-land on March 30, and on 
the western slopes of Pattie Basin on April 7. On 
the latter date a single female was collected. 

Rhoads obtained specimens in the Cocopahs. 


Spizella passerina arizonze. WESTERN CHIPPING SPAR- 


Row.—Obtained by Rhoads at the mouth of the Hardy 
and elsewhere. 


Spizella breweri. BREWeER’s SPARROW.— Migrating 


Brewer’s Sparrows were not uncommon on the open 
desert during our southward journey. A male was 
shot on March 29, and a female, the last one seen, on 
April 19. Rhoads found the species both in the delta 
and the mountains. 


99. Junco hyemalis hyemalis. SLATE-coLORED JUNCO.— 


100. 


‘“‘One typical male example from the Cocopah Moun- 
tains, February 24’’ (Stone and Rhoads). 


Junco hyemalis thurberi. THURBER’s JuNco.—‘“‘ Three 


specimens from the Cocopahs, one of them not typical, 


96 


but nearer to this than any other form” (Stone and 
Rhoads). 

101. Amphispiza bilineata deserticola. Drsmrt SpARROW.— 
Two or three were observed, and one collected in the 
Cocopahs by Rhoads. “This is a bird of the upland 
deserts; not one was seen in the riparian belt’’ (Grin- 
nell, 1914, 173). 

102. Melospiza melodia fallax. Drsmrt Sona Sparrow.— 
Song Sparrows were not uncommon along water 
courses around Mexicali, and we occasionally saw or 
heard them in the delta. Examples were collected 
by Rhoads. 

Some or all of the birds observed may, of course, 
have been referable to M. m. saltonis Grinnell. 

103. Pipilo aberti. ABERT’s TowHEE.—A bird of the outer 
associations of the riparian belt, and probably a 
breeder in the region. Specimens were obtained by 
Rhoads in both the delta and the mountains. 

104. Guiraca cerulea lazula. WESTERN BLUE GROSBEAK.— 
On our first trip to the delta we saw no Blue Grosbeaks, 
the species having probably not yet arrived from the 
tropics. But when Mrs. Murphy and I started down 
the river from Volcano Lake, on April 26, we found 
these birds swarming in the sandy openings west of 
where the twisting Hardy passes the mud volcanoes. 
Here they were feeding on the ground in company 
with Mourning Doves. A male collected on that 
date had not yet lost the brownish edgings of the 
feathers on nape and back. 

105. Hirundo erythrogastra. Barn SwaLLow.—Several seen 
in Mexicali on April 24. 

106. Iridoprocne bicolor. TREE SwaLLow.—Several flocks 
seen by Rhoads, and one specimen collected. 

107. Tachycineta thalassina lepida. NORTHERN VIOLET- 
GREEN SwALLow.—“ Of large flocks seen some seemed 
to be this species’? (Rhoads). This swallow is not 
uncommon in the Imperial Valley in winter. 


97 


108. Riparia riparia. Bank Swattow.—On April 1 several 
Bank Swallows were observed at the base of Cocopah 
Mayor. Again, on April 26, I saw numbers foraging 
over the flooding Hardy. Rhoads noted several along 
the river in February. 

109. Bombycilla cedrorum. Crpar Waxwine.—‘‘ Not many 
seen’’ (Rhoads). 

110. Phainopepla nitens. PHAINoPEPLA.—Mexican name, 
‘“‘Coronado Prieto.’”? Common throughout the region, 
especially in the mesquites below the Cocopahs and 
in the Wash Association west of Pattie Basin. About 
the Tres Pozos water-hole several pairs were usually 
in evidence. They doubtless fed on the mistletoe 
berries in neighboring mesquites and ironwood trees. 

I found that the best way to approach these restless 
birds, which flew so erratically from perch to perch, 
was on horseback. The three males and two females 
collected were all shot from the saddle. 

111. Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides. WHITE-RUMPED 
SHRIKE. 

112. Lanius ludovicianus gambeli. CALIFORNIA SHRIKE. 

These dashing tail-waggers were not uncommon at 
the edge of the desert south of Mexicali, and in the 
Wash Association west of Pattie Basin, where they 
seemed to be breeding. We saw none along the Hardy. 

Of three specimens taken by Rhoads, Stone writes 
that all ‘‘come nearer to gambeli than any other race, 
though they are not quite typical.”’ I should call my 
single specimen, a male taken on April 19, excubitorides, 
though with a similar reservation as to its precise 
status. Imperial Valley shrikes have always been 
referred to the subspecies excubitorides. 

113. Vermivora celata lutescens. LuTrresceEntT WARBLER.— 
One obtained by Rhoads on February 16. 

114. Dendroica estiva sonorana. Sonora YELLOW WaR- 
BLER.—Common in the Wash Association on the 
western side of Pattie Basin, where a breeding male 
was taken on April 5. 


116. 


118. 


119: 


120. 


98 


. Dendroica auduboni auduboni. AUDUBON’S WARBLER. 


—fSeen once or twice in willows along the irrigation 
canals south of Mexicali on March 29. Rhoads found 
the species exceedingly abundant in the delta during 
February. 

Dendroica nigrescens. BLACK-THROATED GRAY WAR- 
BLER.—A single male in full summer plumage was shot 
in the open desert: near our first night camp on the 
morning of March 30. 


. Wilsonia pusilla chryseola. GoLDEN PILEOLATED WAR- 


BLER.—A single male was collected near the main 
irrigation canal, south of Mexicali, on April 19. 

Anthus rubescens. Pipit.—Rhoads saw a very few 
Pipits along the Hardy, and obtained one specimen 
on February 18. 

Mimus polyglottus leucopterus. WrsterRN MockINc- 
BIRD.—Common on the ranches south of Mexicali, 
and equally so on the western slopes of Pattie Basin. 
The birds sang morning and evening, and during 
most of the night. They showed every evidence of 
breeding, and on April 10 I found a nest with four 
half-grown young. It was situated about five feet: 
above the ground in a broken mesquite. The site 
was in a low part of the desert, on the borders of a 
great creosote tract near the base of the Pinto Moun- 
tains. The distance to the Hardy, the nearest flowing 
water, was not less than sixteen miles, and the bare 
flood-plain of the Laguna Salada lay between. 

The Mockingbirds were much more abundant in 
the higher parts of the Wash Association, near the 
foot of the Tinajas, than on the lower slopes, although 
we observed several at the Tres Pozos. A male was 
collected on April 9. 

Rhoads saw and collected three examples at Coco- 
pah Mayor, and noted that they were beginning the 
song season. 

Dumetella carolinensis. CatTpirp.—‘‘I feel sure that 
this bird was seen and heard two or three times along 
the Hardy river” (Rhoads). 


mo. 


124. 


Pe: 


128. 


99 


Toxostoma lecontei lecontei. LrconTr’s THRASHER.— 
Seen several times in the sandy stretches of the lower 
western slopes of the Pattie Basin. They were shy 
and difficult to approach, but on April 7 I pursued 
one through the creosote bushes on horseback, and 
shot it from the saddle when 1t took flight. It proved 
to be a male. 


. Toxostoma crissale. CrissAL THRASHER.—Two speci- 


mens were taken in the Cocopahs by Rhoads, who 
saw not more than five altogether. 


. Heleodytes brunneicapillus couesi. Cactus WrEN.— 


Resident throughout practically all the region visited, 
particularly in the washes west of Pattie Basin. An 
occupied nest of the species was seen in a cholla 
cactus and another in a palo verde. A noisy pair of 
the birds was usually in evidence in the oasis around 
the Tres Pozos. <A bob-tailed fledgling was collected 
on April 5 in the Pattie Basin, and a fully-grown young 
bird (male ?) in the desert south of Mexicali on 
April 19. 
Rhoads collected the species in February. 
Salpinctes obsoletus obsoletus. Rock WrErN.—Six 
specimens were taken in the Cocopahs by Rhoads, 
who, judging from his note on the species, was very 
deeply impressed by the personality of this bird. 


. Troglodytes aédon parkmani. WrsTERN House WREN. 


—Two or three were seen by Rhoads, and one col- 
lected. 


. Nannus hiemalis pacificus? WESTERN WINTER WREN. 


—‘‘Two or three wrens seen in woods near Colony 
were presumably this form’? (Rhoads). 
Telmatodytes palustris paludicola. TULE WREN. —Two 
obtained by Rhoads at the mouth of the Hardy. 
Telmatodytes palustris plesius. WESTERN MARSH 
WREN.—One specimen collected with SENOS of the 
preceding race by Rhoads. 


. Auriparus flaviceps flaviceps. Verpin.—Widely dis- 


tributed throughout the whole region. Rhoads caught 
one “‘in its gourd-like roosting nest”’ in February. 


100 


130. Regulus calendula calendula. RuByY-cROWNED KING- 
LET.—One taken by Rhoads, who saw many along 
both the Colorado and the Hardy. Specimens from 
this region are perhaps referable to R. c. cineraceus of 
Grinnell. 

131. Polioptila cerulea obscura. WESTERN GNATCATCHER.— 

u Two collected by Rhoads, who found the species 
‘‘abundant and always making a fuss out of propor- 
tion to its size.” 

132. Polioptila plumbea. PLUMBEOUS GNATCATCHER.—Not 
uncommon in the desert washes. A male which ap- 
peared to be breeding was collected seven miles south 
of Mexicali on March 29. 

The Plumbeous Gnatcatcher seems to be a bird of 
the low brush, while the preceding species is the tree 
form. 

133. Planesticus migratorius propinquus. WrSTERN RoBIn. 
—A winter visitant in the region. Seen, sometimes 
numerously by Rhoads, but not observed by the 
writer. 

134. Sialia mexicana subsp.—‘ Numerous” (Rhoads). 


LITERATURE CITED. 
Barrows, D. P. 
1900. The Colorado Desert. Nat. Geog. Mag., XI, 337-351, map. 
Caton, J. D. 
1877. The antelope and deer of America. 
GRINNELL, J.‘ 
1914. An account of the mammals and birds of the Lower Colorado 
Valley, with especial reference to the distributional problems 
presented. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., XII, 51-294. 
Horer, E. 
1899. Antelope catching for the zoo. Forest and Stream, August, 
1899, 148, 144. 
Hornapay, W. T. 
1908. Campfires on desert and lava. 
MacDovueat, D. T. 
1906. The delta of the Rio Colorado. Bull. Amer. Geog. Soc., 
XXXVIII, 1-16. 
1907. The desert basins of the Colorado Delta. Bull. Amer. Geog. 
Soc., XX XIX, 705-729. 


101 


MacDovaat, D. T., and collaborators. 
1914. The Salton Sea. Carneg. Inst. Wash. Publ. No. 193. 
MEARNS, E. A. 
1907. Mammals of the Mexican boundary of the United States. 
U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 56, Part 1, pp. xv + 530. 
NeEtson, E. W. 
1911. A land of drought and desert—Lower California. Nat. Geog. 
Mag., XXII, 443-474. : 
1912. A new subspecies of pronghorn antelope from Lower California. 
Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., X XV, 107, 108. 
NEWELL, F. H. 
1907. The Salton Sea. Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 
331-345. 
Nortu, A. W. 
1907. The uncharted sierra of San Pedro Martir. Bull. Amer. 
Geog. Soc., XX XIX, 544-554, map facing p. 768. 
Proenips, J. C. 
1913. The Lower California pronghorn antelope. Science, N. S., 
DS, G. Ail Bava Perales 
Stone, W., and Ruoaps, S. N. 
1905. On a collection of birds and mammals from the Colorado 
Delta, Lower California. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., LVII, 
679-690. 
Van Rossem, A. 
1911. Winter birds of the Salton Sea region. Condor, XIII, 129-137. 


FAS 
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pare a 
urs Boge” hehe 
? Ate hae ; 
; ye; "), 


rt 
ad 


Members of the Linnzan Society 
OF NEW YORK. 


MENG Eval oO 1 /, 


Honorary Members. 


ALLEN, J. A., Ph.D., American Museum of Natural History. 

DutcuHer, WILLIAM, 939 Park Avenue, Plainfield, N. J. 

Merriam, C. Hart, M.D., 1919 16th Street, Washington, D. C. 

Stone, Witmer, Ph.D., Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pa. 


Corresponding Members. 


AssorTt, C. C., M.D., Bristol, Pa. 

AGERSBORG, G.S., Vermilion, 8. D. 

BENNER, FRANKLIN, Minneapolis, Minn. 
*BurGEss, THORNTON W., Springfield, Mass. 

Burrovueus, JouHn, West Park, N. Y. 

Cory, Cuar.zs B., Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Ill. 
Cox, Puiuip, Newcastle, N. B. 

Dury, CHARLES, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Durcuer, B. H., M.D., U.S.A., Manila, P. I. 

Fisuer, A. K., M.D., Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 

Fox, Wm. H., M.D., 1826 Jefferson Place, Washington, D. C. 
*GRANT, W. W., 600 Castle Street, Geneva, N. Y. 
*HARPER, FRANCIS, Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 

Howe tt, Artuur H., Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 
IncERSOLL, A. M., 818 Fifth Street, San Diego, Cal. 

Lanepon, F. W., M.D., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Latuam, Mrs. F. E. B., Micco, Fla. 

Loomis, Leverett M., California Acad. of Sciences, San Francisco, Cal. 
MarsHALL, ALFRED, 64 South Canal Street, Chicago, Ill. 

Meap, THEo. L., Oviedo, Fla. 

OBERHOLSER, Harry C., Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, Oyster Bay, N. Y. 

SacE, JoHN H., Portland, Conn. 

pon ater Tuompson, Greenwich, Conn. 

SHUFELDT, R. W., M.D., 3356 Eighteenth Street, Wonitecient D.C: 


* Elected in May, 1917. 
103 


104 


TROTTER, SPENCER, M.D., Swarthmore, Pa. 
WarREN, B. H., M.D., Everhart Museum, Scranton, Pa. 
Wiuuiston, 8. W., M.D., Ph.D., University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 


Resident Members. 


ABBOTT, CLINTON G., Orchard Hill, Rhinebeck, N. Y. 
Apams, BensaMiIn, New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue & 42d St. 
Batu, Davin SPENCER, Spuyten Duyvil. 
BEEKMAN, GERARD, 7 East 42d Street. 
Brtmont, Avueust, 48 Exchange Place. 
BisHop, Louis B., 356 Orange Street, New Haven, Conn. 
BowvisH, BEECHER S., Demarest, N. J. 
BrisTou, JNO. I. D., 1 Madison Avenue. 
CassEBEER, H. A., Jr., 1095 Steinway Avenue, Steinway, L. I. 
CHAPIN, JAMES P., American Museum of Natural History. 
CuHapMaNn, HE. A., M.D., 3 East 23d Street. 
CHAPMAN, FrRaNK M., American Museum of Natural History. 
Cuiitps, Hon. JoHn Lewis, Floral Park, L. I. 
CHUBB, SAMUEL H., American Museum of Natural History. 
CLEAVES, Howarp H., Public Museum, New Brighton, 8. I. 
CrosBy, MAUNSELL S., Rhinebeck, N. Y. 

*Davis, Witt1aM T., 146 Stuyvesant Place, New Brighton, S. I. 
DIrTERICH, CHARLES F., 2 Rector Street. 
Dongs, CLEVELAND H., 99 John Street. 
Duemore, Caprain A. RapciyFrre, Newfoundland, N. J. 
Dwicut, JONATHAN, 134 West 71st Street. 

{FisHerR, G. Ctypr, Ph.D., American Museum of Natural History. 
FLEISCHER, Epwarp, 1591 Union Street, Brooklyn. 
GLADDEN, GEORGE, 89 Pineapple Street, Brooklyn. 
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GoTTHOLD, ARTHUR F., 60 Wall Street. 
GRANGER, WALTER, American Museum of Natural History. 
Griscom, Luptow, 20 Fifth Avenue. 
Hatter, CLARENCE R., American Museum of Natural History. 
Hanks, Miss Lenpa T., 950 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn. 
Hazarp, Hon. R. G., Peace Dale, R. I. 
Heiter, Max, 86 Glenwood Avenue, Stapleton, 8S. I. 
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HetmutH, WitiiaM, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 
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Hix, GrorceE E., 100 West 91st Street. 
HOLLISTER, GEORGE WHITING, 521 Madison Avenue. 
HUBBELL, GEORGE W., Greenwich, Conn. 


* Life Member. 
7 Elected in April, 1917. 


105 


Hype, E. Francis, 36 West 58th Street. 

Hypk, Freprerick WILLIAM, 350 West 30th Street. 

InGALLs, L. D., 676 Elm Street, Arlington, N. J. 

Irvine, JoHN, Glen Cove, L. I. 

JOHNSON, FRANK Epa@ar, 16 Amackassin Terrace, Yonkers, N. Y. 
JOHNSON, JuLius M., 77 Herkimer Street, Brooklyn. 

KIERAN, JOHN F’, 3150 Kingsbridge Terrace. 

Kusrr, JOHN DrypEN, Bernardsville, N. J. 

Lapp, Niet Morrow, Bellhaven, Greenwich, Conn. 

LaDow, STANLEY VAUGHAN, 622 West 113th Street. 

Lane, HerBertT, American Museum of Natural History. 

Lanapon, Woopsury G., 59 East 59th Street. 

LAURENCE, JOHN B., 126 East 30th Street. 

LAURENCE, NEWBOLD T., 84 William Street. 

LEALE, CHaAruzes A., M.D., 604 Madison Avenue. 

Lemmon, Rosert §., Lafayette Avenue, Englewood, N. J. 

LEnssEN, NicHouas F., 32 Nassau Street. 

Lewis, Browne H., P. O. Box 92, Edgewater, N. J. 

Lewis, Mrs. Browne H., P. O. Box 92, Edgewater, N. J. 
MAITLAND, Rospert L., 141 Broadway. 

Marks, E. Sypnry, 655 Kearney Avenue, Arlington, N. J. 
McMauon, Watt F., Nat’l Ass’n of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway. 
Merriam, Henry F., Ph.D., 30 Clinton Avenue, Maplewood, N. J. 
Miuuer, Leo E., American Museum of Natural History. 

Morris, Ropert T., M.D., 616 Madison Avenue. 

Morrpuy, Ropert CusHMAN, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn. 
NicHo1s, JoHN TREADWELL, American Museum of Natural History. 
NicHots, L. Netson, N. Y. Public Library, Fifth Avenue & 42d Street. 
OsBorRN, Pror. Henry F., American Museum of Natural History. 
OsBorNn, WILLIAM C., 71 Broadway. 

OveERTON, Frank, M.D., Patchogue, L. I. 

PEARSON, T. GILBERT, 1974 Broadway. 

Puitipp, P. BERNARD, 220 Broadway. 

Porter, Louis N., Stamford, Conn. 

Pratt, A. H., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 16 East 40th Street. © 
QuaRLES, EK. A., Amer. Game Protective Ass’n, Woolworth Building. 
Raven, H. C., Bayshore, L. I. 

RIKER, CLARENCE B., 432 Scotland Road, South Orange, N. J. 
*RoGERS, CHARLES H., American Museum of Natural History. 
RUNDALL, CLARENCE A., Brewster, N. Y. 

SAUNDERS, ARETAS A., 16 South 9th Street, Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 
STERN, BENJAMIN, 542 Fifth Avenue. 

STREETER, DANIEL D., Bergen Street & New York Avenue, Brooklyn. 
THAYER, GERALD H., Monadnock, N. H. 

pu VIviIER, Epwarp F., 152 East 71st Street. 


*Life Member. 


106 


Waker, Henry F., M.D., 18 West 55th Street. 

WALTERS, FRANK, 40 West Avenue, Great Barrington, Mass. 
WEBER, Jay A., P. O. Box 216, Palisades Park, N. J. 
WHEELER, C. W. B., M.D., 17 East 38th Street. 

Witcox, T. FERDINAND, 115 West 75th Street. 

Wooprurr, Lewis B., 24 Broad Street. 

pI ZEREGA, Louis A., M.D., 616 Madison Avenue. 


INDEX. 


Abbott, Clinton G., 13, 20, 40. 
Acanthis, 32. 
linaria, 34, 36. 
Accipiter cooperi, 88. 
velox, 88. 
Actitis macularia, 28, 35, 86. 
fichmophorus occidentalis, 27. 
AXgialitis meloda, 9. 
AMstrelata, 27. 
Agelaius phoeniceus phoeniceus, 27. 
sonoriensis, 94. 
Aix sponsa, 4, 31. 
Akeley, Carl E., ‘‘The African Ele- 
= pnant,”’ 2. 
Alle alle, 25. 
Allen, J. A., address by, 19-20; 21. 
Aluco pratincola, 2, 4, 14, 89. 
Ambystoma, 9. 
eee tamnus savannarum austra- 
is, 3. 
Amphispiza bilineata deserticola, 
96 


Anas platyrhynchus, 82. 
rubripes, 6, 23. 
Aneides lugubris, 33. 
Anthus rubescens, 98. 
Antilocapra americana peninsu- 
laris, 9, 75-80. 
Antrostomus vociferus, 35. 
Aquila chrysaétos, 88. 
Ardea herodias herodias, 83. 
Arquatella maritima maritima, 10. 
Ascaphus truei, 33. 
Asio flammeus, 39, 89. 
Astragalinus lawrencei, 95. 
tristis tristis, 6. 
Astur atricapillus atricapillus, 14. 
Auriparus flaviceps flaviceps, 99. 
Avocet, American, 85. 


Beolophus bicolor bicolor, 15, 39. 
Baldpate, 82. 


Ball; David S., 10, 12, 16, 20, 23, 


26, 31. 

Beebe, C. William, ‘‘A Tetrapteryx 
Stage in the Evolution of Birds,” 
13; 33, 39. 

Bird-Banding Association, Ameri- 
can, 11. 


Bishop, Louis B., 20. 

Bison bison athabasce, 12. 

Bittern, Least, 83. 

Blackbird, Brewer’s, 94. 

Red-winged, 27. 
Sonora, 94. 
Rusty, 36. 
Yellow-headed, 94. 
Bluebird, 2, 10, 39. 
(western), 100. 

Bobolink, 10, 30. 

Bob-white, 3. 

Bombycilla cedrorum, 97. 

Bowdish, Beecher S., 11, 16, 29, 31. 

Branta canadensis, 83. 

canadensis, 4, 6. 

Bubo virginianus pallescens, 89 

virginianus, 2,4, 5, 35. 
Buteo borealis calurus, 88. 
lineatus elegans, 88. 
platypterus, 88. 
swainsonl, 88. 
Butorides virescens anthonyi, 84. 
virescens, 28. 

Calearius lapponicus lapponicus, 
UO 32; 3G 

Calidris leucophza, 10, 16, 39. 

Callisaurus, 54. 

Calypte coste, 91. 

Camp, Charles L., “‘The Origin and 
Dispersal of California Reptiles,” 
33. 

Canachites canadensis, 12. 

Canvasback, 10, 31, 34, 36. 

Caracara, Audubon’s, 89. 

Carduelis carduelis, 8. 

Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis, 94. 

Catbird, 98. 

Cathartes aura septentrionalis, 8, 
9, 88. 

Catoptrophorus semipalmatus inor- 
natus, 86. 

Centurus uropygialis, 90. 

Ceratotherium simum, 37. 

Ceryle aleyon alcyon, 18, 28, 31, 90. 

Cheetura pelagica, 11, 35. 

Chapin, James. P,,'3; 6; 7, 10) Ul: 
“Natural History Impressions 


107 


108 * 


from the Canadian Rockies,” 12; 
13, 16, 17, 18 20002, on) omg. 
29, 30, 31,320 as. 3438.40: 

Chapman, Frank M., “‘The Origin 
of Zonal Faunas in the Andes,” 
12; 26, 34, 37; ‘An Ornithological 
Reconnaissance in South Ameri- 
ca,” 38. 

Charadrius dominicus dominicus, 8. 

Chat, Yellow-breasted, 34. 

Chen, 4. 

hyperboreus hyperboreus, 33. 

Cherrie, George K., ‘‘ Nesting Hab- 
its of Some South American 
Birds,” 47, 

Chickadee, Black-cap, 14, 15. 

Brown-cap, 32, 33, 36, 37. 
Labrador, 37, 39. 
Hudsonian, 37. 
Chicken (domestic), 6. 
Chordeiles acutipennis inferior, 90. 
texensis, 90. 

Chrysemys picta, 34. 

Chubb, Samuel H., 1, 12, 29; “‘ Pos- 
sibilities in Bird-Photography in 
New York City,’ 31; 32, 37, 38. 

Cinclus mexicanus unicolor, 12. 

Circus hudsonius, 88. 

Clangula clangula americana, 17. 

Cleaves, Howard H., 1, 2, 4, 5, 6; 
‘“Emotion in Birds as a Means to 
Photography,” 7; 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 
15, 16) 17%, 18, 20;.235.26, 29, 30; 
31, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40. 

Coccyzus americanus americanus, 8. 

Colinus virginianus virginianus, 3. 

Colymbus auritus, 16. 

holboelli, 25. 

Compsothlypis americana usnex, 

26 


Condor, California, 87. 
Coot, American, 85. 
Cormorant, Farallon, 82. 
Corvus. brachyrhynchus _ brachy- 
rhynchus, 27, 32. 
hesperis, 93. 
corax sinuatus, 93. 
ossifragus, 3, 27. 
Cosmetornis vexillarius, 11. 
Cowbird, 33. 
Dwarf, 93. 
Coyote, 68, 77. 
Crane, Sandhill, 4, 85. 
Crossbill, American Red, 32, 33. 
White-winged, 37, 39. 
Crosby, Maunsell S., 32. 
Crotalus atrox, 57. 


Crotalus cerastes, 66-67. 

horridus, 4. 

mitchelli, 54. 
Crow, American, 27, 32. 

Western, 93. 

Fish, 3, 27. 
Cuckoo, Yellow-billed, 8. 
Curlew, Hudsonian, 86. 
Cyanocitta cristata cristata, 33, 39. 


Dafila acuta, 34, 83. 
spinicauda, 24. 
Davis, William T., 4, 11, 20, 23, 24, 
25, 37, 40. 
Decker, Harold K., 15, 29, 33, 35, 
39 


Dendroica xstiva estiva, 3. 
sonorana, 98. 
auduboni auduboni, 98. 
ceerulescens czerulescens, 5. 
cairnsi, 5. 
castanea, 16. 
coronata, 6. 
discolor, 28. 
magnolia, 31. 
nigrescens, 98. 
palmarum hypochrysea, 10, 
» 20, 
palmarum, 27. 
striata, 27. 
tigrina, 7, 8, 26, 27, 30. 
Diatryma, 38. 
Dipodomys, 66. 
Dipper, American, 12. 
Dolichonyx oryzivorus, 10, 30. 
Dove, Inca, 87. 
Mourning, 30. 


Western, 87. 
Turtle, 34. 
White-winged, 13. 


Dovekie, 25. 

Dryobates scalaris lucasanus, 90. 

Duck, Black, 6, 23. 

Ruddy, 83. 
Wood, 4, 31. 

Dumetella carolinensis, 98. 

Dutcher, William, 40. 

du Vivier, 19. 

Dwight, Jonathan, 1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 11, 
12) 13; 15;:16; 17, 18519) 20a 
22, 24, 26, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 
37, 40, 42. 


Eagle, Bald, 6, 18, 89. 
Golden, 88. 

Egret, American, 13, 29, 31, 32, 83. 
Snowy, 84. 


109 


Egretta candidissima candidissima, 
84 


Eland, Giant, 37. 
Elanus leucurus, 88. 
Elephant, African, 2. 
Elliot, Daniel G., 16, 18, 21. 
Empidonax flaviventris, 28. 
trailli alnorum, 8. 
virescens, 8. 
Erethizon epixanthum, 12. 
Erismatura jamaicensis, 83. 
Euphagus carolinus, 36. 
cyanocephalus, 94. 


Falco peregrinus anatum, 18, 25. 
sparverius phalena, 89. 
sparverius, 31. 
Fisher, A. K., 40. 
Fisher, G. Clyde, 17. 
Fishes, The Evolution of Land- 
Living Animals from, 18-19. 
Fleischer, Edward, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 
io) 17,.26, 27, 33, 37, 40. 
Flycatcher, Acadian, 8. 
Alder, 8. 
Ash-throated, 91. 
Crested, 34. 
Vermilion, 92. 
Yellow-bellied, 28. 
. Fratercula arctica arctica, 5. 
Fulica americana, 85. 


Gallinago delicata, 2, 34. 
Gallus gallus (domestic), 6 
Gavia immer, 3, 6. 
Geer, P. Willard, 40. 
Geococcyx californianus, 90. 
Gladden, George, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 
38, 39, 40. 
Glaucidium, 35. 
Gnatcatcher, Plumbeous, 100. 
Western, 100. 
Godwit, Hudsonian, 31. 
Goldeneye, American, 17. 
Goldfinch, American, 6. 
European, 7. 
Lawrence’s, 95. 
Goose, Canada, 4, 6, 83. 
Snow, 4, 83. 
Goshawk, American, 14. 
Grackle (Purple or Bronzed), 11. 
Granger, Walter, 1, 6, 11, 12, 16, 20, 
21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 32, 33; with W. 
D. Matthew, ‘‘A Giant Bird from 
the Eocene of Wyoming,” 38; 39, 


40. 
Grebe, Holbcell’s, 25. 
Horned, 16. 


Grebe, Pied-billed, 81. 
Western, 27. 

Gregory, William K., 13; “The Evo- 
lution of Land-Living Animals 
from Fishes,” 18-19; “The Evo- 
lution of the Human F ace,’”’ 40. 

Griscom, Ludlow, 24, 29, 30, 31, 32, 
34, 35, 36, 37. 

Grosbeak, Blue, BL; 

Western, 96. 
Evening, 15, 32, 36. 
Pine, 32, 36. 

Grouse, Sharp-tailed, 4. 
Spruce, 12. 

Grus canadensis, 85. 
mexicanus, 4, 84. 

Guiraca cerulea, 31. 
lazula, 96. 

Gull, Bonaparte’s, 81. 
California, 81. 
Glaucous, 16, 28. 
Heermann’s, 81. 
Herring, 6, ig 81. 
Iceland, 17. 

W estern, 81. 

Gymnogyps californianus, 87. 

Gyrfalcon, 26. 


Halizetus leucocephalus leucoce- 
phalus, 6, 18, 89. 

Halter, Clarence R,,) 13, 15) 18; 19; 
26. 


Harper, Francis,:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 
UO aa “Observations on the 
Wood Buffalo of the Northwest,” 
12513515; 16, 17, 20; 40; 

Hawk, Broad-winged, 838. 

Cooper’s, 88. 

Duck, 18; 25. 

Harris’s, 88. 

Marsh, 88. 

Red-bellied, 88. 

Red-tailed, W estern, 88. 

Sharp-shinned, 88. 

Sparrow, American, 31. 
Desert, 89. 

Swainson’s, 88. 

Heller, Max, 2, 8, 11, 31, 38. 

Helme, Arthur H., 40. 

Helodromas solitarius solitarius, 5, 
28. 

Herodias egretta, 13, 29, 31, 32, 83. 

Heron, Blue, Great, 83. 

Green, 28. - 
Anthony’s, 84. 
Night, Black-crowned, 11, 
84 


Yellow-crowned sas by 


110 


Hesperiphona vespertina 
tina, 15, 32, 36. 
Hierofalco, 26. 
Himantopus mexicanus, 85. 
Hirundo erythrogastra, 18, 31, 96. 
Hix, George E., 1, 2;3,'4;-570;.4,.6, 
9, 10, 11,13, 15, 16)17, 18/2093; 
24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 
33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40. 
Hollister, George W., 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 
23, 24, 26, 27: 
Honeyguides, 30. 
Hubbell, George W., 2, 3. 
Hummingbird, Costa’s, 91. 
Rufous, 91. 
Hyde, Frederick W., 2, 5, 8, 10, 18, 
16, 20, 40. 
Hyla arenicolor, 33. 
crucifer, 2. 
Hylocichla guttata pallasi, 24. 


Ibis, White-faced Glossy, 83. 
Wood, 838 

Icteria virens virens, 34. 

Icterus cucullatus nelsoni, 94. 
galbula, 30. 

Indians, Cocopah, 56-57; 72-73. 
Menominee, 5. 

Indicatoride, 30. 

Ingalls, L. D., 34, 35, 37. 

Iridoprocne bicolor, 96. 

Ixobrychus exilis, 83. 


vesper- 


Jacana, 13. 
Jay, Blue, 33, 39. 
Rocky Mountain, 9. 
Job, Herbert K., 28. 
Johnson, Frank E., 20, 26, 37, 40. 
Johnson, Julius M., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 
8; “Some Colorado Birds,” 9; 
12, 15,°16,-20; 21,28; 25, 26, 2s 
28, 32. 38, 39, 40, "42, 
Junco, Slate-colored, 95. 
Thurber’s, 95. 
Junco hyemalis hyemalis, 95. 
thurberi, 95. 


Kieran, John F., 1, 8, 15, 16, 19. 
Killdeer, 2, 29, 86. 
Kingbird, 34. 
Arkansas, 91. 
Kingfisher, Belted, 18, 28, 31, 90. 
Kinglet, Ruby-crowned, 100. 
Kite, White-tailed, 88. 
Ladd, Niel M., 18, 14, 15. 
LaDow, Stanley V., 4, 6, 8, 17, 18, 
19, 23, 35. 


Laing, H. M., 4. 

Lang, Herbert, 11, 12; 13, 18520; 
23; The Okapi and its. Life- 
History,” 24; 26, 27, 34, 35; “On 
the Square-lip Rhinoceros and 
the Giant Eland,” 37; 38, 39, 40. 

Langmann, Gustav, 41. 

Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides, 


gambeli, 97. 
Lark, Horned, Prairie, 34, 39. 
Sonora, 92. 
Larus argentatus, 6, 17, 81. 
californicus, 81. 
heermanni, 81. 
hyperboreus, 16, 28. 
leucopterus, 17. 
occidentalis, 81. 
philadelphia, 81. 
aio Robert S., 5, 6, 11, 15, 16, 
Lenssen, Nicholas F., 4. 
Limosa hemastica, 31. 
Linnet, California, 94. 
Lizards, 54, 64. 
Longspur, Lapland, 10, 32, 36. 
Loon, Common, 3, 6 
Lophortyx gambeli, 86. 
Loxia curvirostra minor, 32, 33. 
leucoptera, 37, 39. 
Loxodonta africana, 2. 


Machetes pugnax, 13. 
Mallard, 82. 
Mammals, Big Game, of the Anglo- 
Egyptian Sudan, 29. 
Mareca americana, 82. 
Marila affinis, 83. 
americana, 83. 
valisineria, 10, 31, 34, 36. 
Marks, E. Sydney, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 
8, 10, TL, 13, 45) TO, 
23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 
37, 38, 40. 
Marmota flaviventer, 12. 
Martin, Purple, 34. 
Matthew, W. D. See Granger, 
Walter. 
McMahon, Walt F., 40. 
Meadowlark, 9. 
Western, 94. 
Meleagris gallopavo (domestic), 6 
Melopelia asiatica, 13. 
Melospiza georgiana, 7, 17. 
lincolni lincolni, 7. 
melodia fallax, 96. 
melodia, 2 


cit 


Melospiza melodia saltonis, 96. 

Merganser, American, 3, 15, 17, 82. 
Red-breasted, 3, 82. 

Mergus americanus, 3, 15, 17, 82. 
serrator, 3, 82. 

“Miller, Leo E., 39, 40, 42. 

Miller, W. DeWitt, 5, 7; MO ees 
39. 

Mimus polyglottus polyglottus, 28. 

leucopterus, 98. 

Mniotilta varia, 18. 

Mniotiltide, 7, 27, 28. 

Mockingbird, 28. 

Western, 98. 

Molothrus ater ater, 33. 

obscurus, 93. 

Morris, Robert, T., 40. 

Mouse, White-footed, 50. 

Murphy, Robert C., 1, 8; “Notes 
on a Trip into the Lower Cali- 
fornia Desert,’ 9; 11, 12, 18; 
‘“‘New Facts as to the Relation- 
ships of the South Georgia Teal,’’ 
24; 25, 38, 40; “‘Natural History 
Observations from the Mexican 
Portion of the Colorado Desert,” 
43-101. 


Murphy, F. D., ‘Big Game Mam- 


mals of the Anglo-Egyptian Su- 


dan,’’.29. 
Mycteria americana, 83. 
Myiarchus cinerascens cinerascens, 


crinitus, 34. 
Myiochanes richardsoni 
soni, 92. 

virens, 18. 


richard- 


Nannus hiemalis hiemalis, 29. 
pacificus, 99. 
Nettion carolinense, 82. 
georgicum, 24. 

Nichols, John T., 1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 
15, 16; ‘“‘The Song Season of 
TOTS?’ 17: 18, 21, 25, 26; on the 
| pitas of Porto -Rico,’” 27; 31, 
32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41. 

Nichols, L. Nelson, 29, 31, 32, 38, 
34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40. 

Nighthawk, Texas, 90. 

Nightjar, Pennant-winged, 11. 

Numenius hudsonicus, 86. 

Nuthatch, Red-breasted, 8, 15, 24, 
31, 35. 

Nyctanassa violacea, 85. 

Nycticorax nycticorax nevius, 11, 
36, 84 


Ochotona princeps, 12. 
Okapi, The, and its Life-History, 24. 
Oporornis philadelphia, 10. 
Oriole, Baltimore, 30. 
Hooded, Arizona, 94. 
Osborn, Henry F., 38, 39. 
Osprey, American, 11, 27, 89. 
Otocoris alpestris pallida, 92. 
pratincola, 39. 
Otus asio asio, 35. 
cineraceus, 89. 
Overton, Frank, 2, 9, 20. 
Owl, Barn, 2, 4, 14, 89. 
Barred, 2, 4, 35. 
Burrowing, 89. 
Horned, Great, 2, 4, 5, 35. 
Western, 89. 
Screech, 35. 
Mexican, 89. 
Short-eared, 39, 89. 
Oxyechus vociferus, 2, 29, 86. 


ae haliaétus carolinensis 11, 
27, 
Peak Clifford H., 2, 4, 5, 6. 
Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi, 88. 
Passerculus sandwichensis alaudi- 
nus, 95. 
savanna, 15. 
rostratus rostratus, 95. 
Passerherbulus caudacutus, 16. 
Passerella iliaca, 18. 
Pearson, T. Gilbert, 32. 
Pedicecetes phasianellus phasianel- 
lus, 4. 
Pelecanus erythrorhynchus, 82. 
Pelican, White, 82. 
Pelidna alpina sakhalina, 27. 
Penthestes atricapillus atricapillus, 


Pest 
hudsonicus, 32, 33, 36, 37. 
littoralis, 37. 
nigricans, 37, 40. 
Perisoreus canadensis capitalis, 9. 
Peromyscus eremicus eremicus, 50. 
maniculatus sonoriensis, 50. 
Petrels, 27. 
Pewee, Wood, 18. 
Western, 92. 
Phalacrocorax auritus albociliatus, 


mexicanus, 82. 
Philipp, P. Bernard, 15; 16,29, 32; 
35, 39, 40. 
Philohela minor, 2, 28, 
Pheebe, 2, 16. 
Black, 92. 


112 


Pheebe, Say’s, 92. 
Picoides arcticus, 34. 
Pika, 12. 
Pinicola enucleator leucura, 32, 36. 
Pintail, 34, 83. 
Pipilo aberti, 96. 
erythrophthalmus erythro- 
phthalmus, 3. 
Pipit, American, 98. 
Piranga rubra rubra, 28. 
Pisobia minutilla, 7, 28, 86. 
Planesticus migratorius migratorius, 


propinquus, 100. 
Plegadis guarauna, 83. 
Plover, American Golden, 8. 
Black-bellied, 32. 
Piping, 9. 
Podilymbus podiceps, 81. 
Polioptila czerulea obscura, 100. 
plumbea, 100. 
Polyborus cheriway, 89. 
Pocecetes gramineus gramineus, 3. 
Poor-will, 90. 
Porcupine, Yellow-haired, 12. 
Porzana carolina, 85. 
Progne subis subis, 34. 
Pronghorn, 9; 75-80. 
Protonotaria citrea, 27. 
Puffin, 5. 
Pyrocephalus rubinus mexicanus, 
92. 


Quail, Desert, 86. 

Quarles, E. A., 10. 

Querquedula cyanoptera, 83. 
discors, 30. 

Quiscalus quiscula, 11. 


Rabbit, Cottontail, 71, 73. 
Jack, 54, 66, 71. 
Rail, Clapper, 10. 
Rallus crepitans crepitans, 10. 
Rat, Kangaroo, 66. 
Rattlesnake, 4, 54, 57, 66, 67. 
Raven, 93. 
Recurvirostra americana, 85. 
Redhead, 83. 
Redpoll, 32, 34, 36. 
Regulus calendula calendula, 100. 
Reptiles, Origin and Dispersal of 
California, 33. 
Rhinoceros, Square-lip, 37. 
Riker, Clarence B., 20. 
Riparia riparia, 97. 
Roadrunner, 90. 
Robin, American, 2, 11. 


Robin, Western, 100. 

Rogers, Charles H., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 
8; remarks on meetings, 9; 10, 11, 
12, 18, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20; Sec- 
retary’s Report, 21; 22, 23, 24, 
25, 26, 27, 28, 29; on a census of ° 
birds at Crosswicks, N. J., 30; 
31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 
40; Secretary’s Report, 41; 42. 

Ruff, 13. 


Salamander, Tiger, 9. 
Salpinctes obsoletus obsoletus, 99. 
Sanderling, 10, 16, 39. 
Sandpiper, Least, 7, 28, 86. 

Purple, 10. 

Red-backed, 27. 

Solitary, 5, 28. 

Spotted, 28, 35, 86. 
Sapsucker, Yellow-bellied, 6, 8. 
Saunders, Aretas A., 13. 
Sayornis nigricans, 92. 

pheebe, 2, 16. 

sayus, 92. 

Scaphiopus holbrooki, 33. 

Seardafella inca, 87. 

Scaup, Lesser, 83. 

Seiurus motacilla, 4, 25. 

Selasphorus rufus, 91. 

Seton, Ernest T., ‘‘Woodcraft in 
New York City,” 26. 

Shannon, Wm. Purdy, 91. 

Shorebirds, 8. 

Shoveler, 31, 83. 

Shrike, California, 97. 

White-rumped, 97. 
Sialia sialis sialis, 2, 10, 39. 

mexicana, 100. 

Siskin, Pine, 14, 31, 36. 
Sitta canadensis, 8, 15, 24, 31, 35. 
Skinner, Alanson, “In my Grand- 
father’s Wigwam,”’ 5. 
Snipe, Wilson’s, 2. 
Sora, 85. 
Spadefoot, Hermit, 33. 
Sparrow, Brewer’s, 95, 
Chipping, 3, 4, 34. 
Western, 95. 
Sparrow, Desert, 96. 

Fox, 18. 

Gambel’s, 95. 

Grasshopper, 3. 

House, 32. 

Large-billed, 95. 

Lincoln’s, 7. 

Savannah, 15. 

Western, 95. 


113 


Sparrow, Sharp-tailed, 16. 
Song, 2. 
Desert, 96. 
Swamp, 7, 17. 
Vesper, 3. 
White-crowned, 7, 28. 
White-throated, 6. 
Spatula clypeata, 31, 83. 
Speotyto cunicularia hypogea, 89. 
Sphyrapicus varius varius, 6, 8. 
Spinus pinus, 14, 31, 36. 
Spizella breweri, 95. 
passerina arizone, 95. 
passerina, 3, 4, 34. 
Spring Peeper, 2. 
Squatarola squatarola, 32. 
Starling, 11. 
Steganopus tricolor, 85. 
Sterna antillarum, 27, 82. 
caspia, 81. 
dougalli, 8, 81. 
elegans, 81. 
hirundo, 8, 11. 
Stevens, Alex. H., 41. 
Stilt, Black-necked, 85. 
Streeter, Daniel D., 18. 
Strix varia varia, 2, 4, 35. 
Sturnella magna magna, 9. 
neglecta, 94. 
Sturnus vulgaris, 11. 
Swallow, Bank, 97. 
Barn, 18, 31, 96. 
Tree, 96. 
Violet-green, Northern, 96. 
Swift, Chimney, 11, 35. 
Sylvilagus auduboni arizone, 71, 73. 


Tachycineta thalassina lepida, 96. 
Tanager, Summer, 28. 
Taubenhaus, B. S., 1, 2, 4, 5, 6. 
Taurotragus derbianus gigas, 37. 
Teal, Blue-winged, 30. 

Cinnamon, 83. 

Green-winged, 82. 
Telmatodytes palustris paludicola, 

99 


plesius, 99. 

Tern, Caspian, 81. 

Common, 8, 11. 

Elegant, 81. 

Least, 27, 82. 

Roseate, 8, 81. 
Thayer, Gerald. H., 35, 36, 37, 40. 
Thrasher, Crissal, 99. 

Leconte’s, 99. 
Thrush, Hermit, 34. 
Tit, Tufted, 15, 39. 


Totanus melanoleucus, 6, 7, 28. 
Towhee, 3. 
Abert’s, 96. 
Toxostoma crissale, 99. 
lecontei lecontei, 99. 
Troglodytes aédon aédon, 30. 
parkmani, 99. 
Turkey (domestic), 6. 
Turtle, Painted, 34. 
Tutrur, 34. 
Tyrannus tyrannus, 34. 
verticalis, 91. 


Uma notata, 64. 
Uta graciosa, 64. 


Verdin, 99. 
Vermivora celata celata, 36, 37. 
lutescens, 97. 

chrysoptera, 28. 
lawrencei, 28. 
leucobronchialis, 27. 
peregrina, 5, 7, 8, 16, 27, 28. 
pinus, 28, 34. 

Vireo, Red-eyed, 31. 
Solitary, 31. 

Vireosylva olivacea, 31. 

Vulture, Turkey, 8, 9, 88. 


Warbler, Audubon’s, 98. 


Bay-breasted, 16. 

Black and White, 18. 

Black-poll, 27. 

Black-throated Blue, 5. 

Black-throated Gray, 98. 

Blue-winged, 28, 34. 

Brewster’s, 27. 

Cairns’s, 5. 

Cape May, 7, 8. 

Golden-winged, 28. 

Hooded, 27. 

Lawrence’s, 28. 

Lutescent, 97. 

Magnolia, 31. 

Mourning, 10. 

Myrtle, 6. 

Orange-crowned, 36, 37. 

Palm, 27. 

Yellow, 10, 16, 25, 36. 

Parula, 26. 

Pileolated, Golden, 98. 

Prairie, 28. 

Prothonotary, 27. 

Tennessee, 5; 7, 8, 16, 27, 28. 

Yellow, 3. 

Sonora, 97. 

Waterthrush, Louisiana, 4, 25. 


114 


Waxwing, Cedar, 97. 

Weber, Jay A., 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 
11, 18, 94,15; 1G, 2052352526: 
27, 28, 31, 35, 38, 39, 40. 

Whip-poor-will, 35. 

Wiegmann, William H., 28, 36. 

Willet, Western, 86. 

Wilsonia citrina, 27. 

pusilla chryseola, 98. 

Wood, Cynthia A., 41. 

Woodcock, American, 2, 28. 

Woodpecker, Gila, 90. 

San Lucas, 90. 
Three-toed, Arctic, 34. 

Woodruff, Lewis B., 1, 8, 16, 17; 
Treasurer’s Report, 20; 21, 28, 29, 
32, 35, 37, 39, 40; Treasurer’s 
Report, 41; 42. 


Wren, House, 30. 
Western, 99. 
Marsh, Western, 99. 
Rock, 99. 
Tule, 99. 
Winter, 29. 
Western, 99. 


Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, 94. 
Yellowlegs, Greater, 6, 7, 28. 
Zenaidura macroura carolinensis, 
ee 87. 
Zonotrichia albicollis, 7. 


leucophrys gambeli, 95. 
leucophrys, 7, 28. 


ERRATA 


Page 18, line 7: for “‘Contopus”’ read ‘‘Myiochanes.”’ 
In “ Abstract” nos. 26-27: 


Page 52: 


under ‘‘ Dendroica,” insert ‘“‘coronata, 4, 28, 38.” 


52: after ““Dovekie,” for.” 51) mead "15:7 

52: move ‘“‘Gnatcatcher, Blue-gray, 5, 31” three lines up. 

54: under “ Passerculus,” erase ‘“‘caudacutus, 6.” 

54: under ‘‘ Passerherbulus,”’ insert ‘‘caudacutus, 6.” 

54: for ‘‘Penthestes atricapilla atricapilla,’’ read ‘‘Penthestes atri- 


capillus atricapillus.”’ 


54: for “ Philip,”’ read “Philipp.” 


Readers who discover errors in the present issue are requested to notify 
the Secretary, so that corrections may be made. 


PUBLICATIONS 


a ae Linnaean Society of New York. 


Pe, =. > TRANSACTIONS. 


eae 4, 1882, Royal Octayo, 168 pages. Out of print. FRoNTISPIECE.—PoRTRAIT 

OR: LINNaUS. 

_. Tur VERTEBRATES OF THE ADIRONDACK ReGion, NoRTHHASTERN NEw YorK. 
First Instalment. Clinton Hart Merriam. 
Is nor THe Fisu Crow (Corvus ossifragus Wilson) A WINTER AS WELL AS A SUMMER 

- ResIpDENT aT THE NORTHERN Limit oF irs Rancn? William Dutcher. 
<A Review or THE Sommer Birps.or A Part of THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, WITH 

ath a: PREFATORY: REMARKS ON THE FAUNAL AND FLORAL FEATURES OF THE REGION. 

Ra Eugene Pintard Bicknell. 


: € 


s¢ Cyatamne II, 1884, Royal Gidavo, 233 pages. Price in paper, $2. 00; cloth, $3.00. 

ey, FRONTISPIECE, —PLATE or Benpire’s SHREW. 

THE VERTEBRATES OF THE ADIRONDACK REGION, NORTHEASTERN New York. 

- Second Instalment, concluding the Mammalia. Clinton Hart Merriam. 

| A NEw GENUS AND SPECIES OF THE SORICIDR. (Atophyrax Bendirii Merriam.) 
: Clinton Hart Merriam. 


: ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 

eS hae z Octavo, paper covers. 

: | oie Ih illustrated embers. most ‘of the plates are photographic, with an average 
ae of two photographs on each plate. 


ON 0. 4, ‘for the year ending March 1, 1889, 9 pages, 25 cents. 
x "Former Asunpancr or Some Sprcins or Brrvs oN New York Isnanp AT THE 
ta oo: OF THEIR MIGRATION TO THE Souru. George N, Lawrence. 


3 No, os ten the year ending March 7, 1890, 10 pages, 25 cents, 
Nores ON THE CAROLINA PAROQUET IN FLORIDA. Frank M. Chapman. 


reg ce for the year. -ckding Maéch 1, 1893, 41 pages, 50 cents. 
_ Muicers INDIAN NATURAL History. Tappan Adney. 


= Xo. 6, for the year ending March 27, 1894, 103 pages. Out of print. 
Rucenr PROGRESS IN THE Srupy OF N ORTH AMER{ CAN Mammats. 


J. A. Allen. 
Ce Consmenderdn or Some ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE WITH EXTRACTS FROM 
CORRENT Se _ L. S. Foster. 


io the year ending March 26, 1895, 41 pages, 50 cents. 
aa OTES ON CuBan MamMats. Juan Gundlach. 
SALAMANDERS FounpD IN THE VICINITY OF New Your City, with NOTES UPON 
_ EXtraunnirat OR ALLIED SPECIES, Wm. L. Sherwood. 


WAN MN 


4163 [ieee 
-No..8, for the year ending March 24, eae 27 pages, 50 cents. 


THE SNAKES FOUND WITHIN Firty Mies or NEw York ‘Ciry. 
: “Raymond L. Ditmars.. x 


No. 9, for the year ending March 9, 1897, 56 pages. Out of print. et 
THE FISHES OF THE FREsH AND BRACKISH WATERS IN THE. -Vrooney or NEw Yorn! A 
City. + ieee Smith. 


No. 10, for the: year aie March 8, 1898, 27 pages, 50 cents. = erie 
Tur Frogs AND Toaps. Founp IN THe VicINiITy or New Yorx Cone. aie 
Wm. L. Sherwood. 
No. 11, for the year ending March 14, 1899, 32 pages, 50 cents 2° Spey ee 
THE TURTLES AND LIZARDS OF THE VICINITY OF M EW YORK Crrz. 


- 


" Rugene smith. 


‘No. 12, for the year ending March 13, 1900, 9 pages, 25. cents. 


No. 13, for the year ending March, 12, 1901, \ 70 pages, 50 cents. F 2 = 


No. 14, ss 24 49625 ; 
~~ Nores on THE Mammats or Lona IsvAND; ay. “Arthur i. Heimas 
THe MamMans or Werstcuester County, N. Y. John Rowley. A 


SomE Foop BIRDS OF THE ESKIMOS OF N ORTHWESTERN Cte NT AND. 
J. D. Figgins. 


3 Ko. 1 15, for the year ending March 19, 190 1903, 2 } 70 pages. 9 ince Out of print. Zee : 
Poin NOTES ON THE Binps AND ‘Masans: OF THE Coox’ 8 “Inte? REGion. oF or 


~ ALASKA. J. D. Figgins. 
Some NOTES ON THE aS SE or Birps.. 3 oN William Beebe. 

Some APPARENTLY UNDESCRIBED EGGs oF Norra AEN Bmps.. 
Louis B. Bishop. 


No. 17, for the year ending Mareh 14, 1905, “i 
No. 18, < 27, 1906, 136: pages, 2 2 plates, 75 cents, e 
No. 19, Sehaenfe me Sos Me eS 12, 1907, ern 
eu. List or rae Birps or Lone ISLAND, N.Y, eee is Wm. C. , Bras. 
No. 20, for the year ending March 10, 1908, eS ret =: oe Es 
os ESE Ut 6 a 1909, 122 Bae: 14 lates 41 00. a eo eg | 
e : c] ; 5 Ey eon 
No. 23. heey s: 2 sf “14, 1911, ; . - 2 
Bray” S-NESTING IN THE MaGpaLEN ISLANDS. ie a ag pp, B. Philipp: 
"fxr Birp CoLonies OF PAMLICO SOUND, : 2 ~P. B. Philipp. © 
A last oF THE FisHes KNown To Have OccurrED ‘WITHIN Firey. Meee or NEw - 
York Crry. ea : oka i al haha Richolae se 
No. a » for the year ending March i, ae = 59 panes. 22: plates, si. 00: = ae He 
THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD: A Sropy IN THE Econoey OF A Carrart:- Marsa. 


Arthur A. Allen 
AN Ivrnresrina OrniTHoL0ci CAL Winter AROUND N EW York Orry.  ¢: 4 
Ludlow Griscom. 


No. 26, for the year ending March 10, 1914, Lag. 49 | Paes, 35 cents. 


No. 27, “ geen oie zs : ; 
Wo » for th the year ending Sy Mee ¥ 11s ba pag és, 6 ees: gy 00. 4 ine 
NATURAL HIsToRY OBSERVATIONS FROM THE MEXICAN PoRTION OF THE Covonapo 
DESERT: > ~ bs rs _ Robert Cushman a MGEERy 3 


Lo non-members, postage extra in call cases. sant age we a es 2 

All publications free to members of the Society at ic tite Se issue. . 3 

_. For any information concerning the publications, address. the pepe OF aa 
York Gi Society or New York, care o American Mescun of ‘oie bam a z 
ork City. Be Seas | pio hee aad