242 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



terest; and in many cases this is sufficient to generalize 

 upon the distribution of those species throughout the pen- 

 insula and adjacent islands. 



To this is added such biographical notes as were possible 

 upon the itinerant trips, when the whole care and respon- 

 sibility of the expeditions rested upon the author, whose 

 other duties of collecting and preparing mammals, birds, 

 birds' eggs and reptiles with wholly inadequate assistance, or 

 none, left but little time for careful observations on habits. 



I include under the term " Cape species," those which 

 have their principal habitat on the Gulf side of the penin- 

 sula southward from about the latitude of La Paz; some of 

 these, as hereafter indicated, occur elsewhere in more or 

 less abundance. The term is in one sense a misnomer — as 

 remarked by Mr. Belding: "Inappropriate, for the good 

 reason that so few of the so-called Cape species really occur 

 at Cape St. Lucas." The " Cape region," when alluded to, 

 will be understood to designate in general the country just 

 mentioned, where the principal operations of Messrs. Xan- 

 tus, Belding and Frazar were conducted. I have noted the 

 localities where species have been found, some of which are 

 given, for instance, only from the Cape region, from which 

 the negative conclusion that they do not occur elsewhere on 

 the peninsula, should not be drawn, as many of them are 

 well known to inhabit Upper California and range south 

 into Mexico during migration. 



A bibliography of the papers relating wholly or in part 

 to the ornithology of Lower California is appended. 



This year (1889) I revisited Magdalena and Santa Mar- 

 garita Islands, and secured some species not found the pre- 

 vious year, and obtained additional specimens of the others. 

 I was greatly disappointed, however, at failing to find upon 

 Santa Margarita Island certain small land birds, which had 

 been common the year before in winter, but they had all 

 departed. 



