BREWSTER : BIRDS OF THE CAPE EEGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 7 



La Paz. — At La Paz Mr. Frazar collected from January 28 to Feb- 

 ruary 26, and from March 19 to April 7, making his headquarters in the 

 town, and covering as much of the surrounding country as could be 

 reached in a day's walk or drive. He describes it as excessively dry 

 and barren, m fact " burnt to a crisp " by a drought, which had con- 

 tinued unbroken for upwards of two years. The cattle had nearly all 

 died of thirst or starvation, for there was no surface water anywhere 

 and no grass, the only vegetation consisting of scattered bushes and 

 cacti of various kinds. 



Over much of this desolate region birds were exceedingly scarce, but 

 in a few favored localities — such as that at the base of the range of 

 hills immediately behind the town, where there were exceptionally 

 dense and luxuriant thickets of bushes and occasional small trees — Mr. 

 Frazar found in greater or less abundance such characteristic Lower 

 California forms as the St. Lucas Thrasher, Baird's Verdin, St. Lucas 

 Cactus Wren, St. Lucas Swallow, St. Lucas House Finch, St. Lucas 

 Towhee, St. Lucas Cardinal, St. Lucas Pyrrhuloxia, Xantus's Jay, St. 

 Lucas Flycatcher, Xantus's Hummingbird, and St. Lucas Woodpecker. 



Along the borders of the neighboring bay were a few scattered fringes 

 or clusters of mangroves intersected by tidal creeks and flooded at high 

 water. These thickets furnished congenial haimts for Mangrove War- 

 blers, Grinnell's Water-Thrushes, Belding's Rails, and Frazar's Green 

 Herons, none of which, excepting the Water-Thrushes, were met with 

 elsewhere by Mr. Frazar. 



The shores or waters of this bay were also frequented by Large-billed 

 Sparrows, Killdeer, Seraipalmated and Wilson's Plovers, Gray Yellow- 

 legs, Long-billed and Hudsonian Curlews, Keddish Egrets, Wood 

 Ibises, Western Gulls, Caspian and Royal Terns, California Brown 

 Pelicans, Man-o'-war Birds, Brandt's Cormorants, Pied-billed Grebes 

 and other kinds of wading or water birds. 



Triunfo. — On April 11 Mr. Frazar went to Triunfo, "a mining camp 

 situated among the mountains, fifty miles south of La Paz, and at about 

 the beginning of the oak level," although no trees of any kind were to 

 be seen in the immediate nei<i;hborhood, all having been cut for use in 

 the mine. The surrounding hills were excessively dry and barren, and 

 even the arroyos had little vegetation, although they were inhabited by 

 fair numbers of birds. 



Within four miles of the camp, however, was a canon, near the head 

 of which water " bubbled from the ground " in sufficient quantity to 

 form a brook of considerable size. For a distance of perhaps a quarter 



