12 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



beaches backed by sand-dunes stretch as far as the eye can reach in both 

 directions, to the southwest curving gently outward to form the rocky 

 promontory known as San Jose del Cabo. 



A distinction between this name and the shorter appellation San 

 Jose, which, I believe, is the current and no doubt proper term for the 

 village itself, was apparently made by Mr. Xantus in labeling his 

 specimens, although there are reasons for believing that some of those 

 which are marked " San Jose del Cabo " were really taken at or near 

 the mouth of the river, and hence at some distance from the Cape 

 itself. ^Ir. Belding employs both names in connections which indicate 

 that he regarded them as synonymous. Mr. Bryant, in his Catalogue 

 of the Birds of Lower California, invariably uses the longer title, 

 applying it to all records relating to the village of San Jose, as well as 

 to the neighboring sea-coast, without apparent regard to the form in 

 which they originally appeared. No doubt, the fact that there are 

 several San Joses, but only one San Jose del Cabo, in Lower California, 

 prompted him to adopt this course, which, for the same reason, I have 

 also followed, whenever it has seemed admissible, in the present 

 paper. 



It is not surprising that so rare a combination of attractive conditions 

 as that just mentioned, — especially in a country so generally arid and 

 barren as Lower California — should have given San Jose del Cabo 

 an exceptionally rich and varied bird fauna. The smaller insectivorous 

 or seed-eating birds find congenial shelter and abundance of food in the 

 Juxuriant vegetation with which the village and its immediate neigh- 

 borhood are favored ; reed-loving species, such as Marsh Wrens, Yellow- 

 throats, Rails, and Gallinules, inhabit the pools lower down the river; 

 the shallow lagoon at its mouth affords a perfect paradise for waders 

 and waterfowl of many different varieties, while Plover, Sandpipers, 

 Gulls, Terns, Cormorants, Pelicans, and even such ultra-typical marine 

 birds as Petrels and Shearwaters, frequent the neighboring sandy 

 beaches or at least pass over or near them on their flights up and down 

 the coast. 



