VOL. II.] Cape Region of Baja California. 191 
_ The morning that we started up the long, broad arroyo was cloudy 
and favorable for a longer excursion than usual, so that it was one 
or two o'clock before we reached the house, where I found two red- 
dish-colored gophers ( Zhomomys) hanging by strings from the 
door, a donation from some cultivator who was glad to rid his 
garden of such troublesome pests, and interested enough to save 
them for me; he afterwards came with his entire family to witness 
the operation of making them into cabinet skins. Towards the 
upper end of the dry arroyo we found large wild fig trees in fruit, to 
which several species of birds resorted for shade and to eat the small 
figs which were just ripening. The woodpeckers (Dryodates and 
Melanerfes) were conspicuous, and I saw several ravens there also. 
But two species of hummingbirds were met with: Costa’s ( Zrochi- 
lus coste) and Xantus’s ( Basilinna xantusi), the latter much rarer 
at the lower elevations, but numbers were afterwards seen in the 
mountains where water was abundant; this handsome and distinct 
‘species is found only in the southern part of Lower California, espe- 
cially in the cape region. A Mexican who accompanied us into the 
San Francisquito mountains told me that he had on several occa- 
sions seen in those mountains a very large hummingbird having a 
blue back, and that Xantus obtained one specimen which was pre- 
sented to some one, name unknown, in San Francisco; he described 
the bird clearly enough, but I think he may have had two stories 
mixed. San José del Cabo is a nearly. perfect ornithological col- 
lecting locality, in fact it is the best place I have ever visited; first, 
the tropical situation makes it a desirable change to the collector — 
accustomed to a cooler climate. Then the long stretch of sandy 
beach along the ocean must be suited to many shore birds, although 
during the weeks that I was there but few birds were found upon 
the shore, large and small ones alike preferring the brackish water 
of the lagoon or the sandy or grassy banks of the running stream 
just above. On the lagoon the ducks were arriving from the north, 
and cormorants were fattening upon the many small fishes, especially 
 Mugil curema and Dormitator latifrons; farther up the stream white 
_ herons were catching the larger fish ( Agonostoma nasutum) called 
‘“‘trucha’’ by the Mexicans. In the canebrakes bordering the 
_ lagoon the strange, noisy notes of the grooved-bill ani ( Cro/ophaga 
_ sulctrostris) were heard, and*a number of specimens were collected 
_of this peculiar black bird, which is related to the road-runner ( Geo- 
