240 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



miles. The entire distance covered on the pack-mule expe- 

 dition was about one hundred miles and return. 



Comondu canon is well worth special mention, it probably 

 having never been previously visited by an ornithologist, 

 but no description of mine can give anything like an accu- 

 rate idea of the country. After traversing a good trail from 

 San Jorge through the brush and cactus and constantly ap- 

 proaching the mountains we enter a broad, dry arroyo, whose 

 sides of sandy hills gradually narrow and become more 

 rocky. By the time the first running water is reached we 

 are at the first ranch of Comondu, or more properly garden, 

 for the entire caiion is divided into small gardens, one ad- 

 joining another. The rocky sides rising in places two to 

 five hundred feet above the creek now fairly wall us in with- 

 out an outlet until the town of San Miguel is approached; 

 from this ancient settlement several trails lead to places in 

 the surrounding country. 



Comondu canon is twelve miles or less in length and only 

 a few hundred yards wide at any point. Above the settle- 

 ment of San Miguel, in Comondu canon, is an old mission, 

 now abandoned. The caiion owes its fertility to two large 

 living springs, the waters of which are conducted in open 

 ditches through the gardens for irrigation. 



The population, including the swarms of children, num- 

 bers about one thousand or less. The peojDle are generally 

 hospitable, but miserably poor. In the gardens are culti- 

 vated the fig, date, orange, guava and lemon, various vege- 

 tables, sugar cane, small patches of grain, corn, etc. Such 

 an oasis could not fail to attract birds from the heated, cac- 

 tus-covered and rock-strewn land about, and my expectation 

 to find numbers of species not previously met with was 

 fully realized. Indeed I was so pleased with the place that 

 I returned again in April, and made additional collections, 

 but the climate, water and food, were unfavorable for a 

 longer stay than two weeks. 



The plains of San Julio and San Pedro are grazing lands. 



