530 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



3. Amphispiza belli (Cass.). 

 Common. 



4. Otocorys alpestris chrysolaBma (Wagl.). 

 Oue small flock seeu. 



5. Calypte costcB (Bourc). 

 Conimon. 



6. ^gialites alexandrinus nivosus (Cass.). 

 Paired. 



7. Larus heermanni (Cass.)- 

 Yery commou. 



4. Cer'ros Island, icest coast of Lower California (latitude just north of the 

 parallel of 28°.) 



Arriving at tbis island April 14, twelve days were spent in explor- 

 ing it. 



The total length of Cerros Island is about 20 miles, its greatest width 

 about 8 miles. The highest peak reaches an altitude of about 4,000 feet, 

 while much of the land is more than 1,500 feet above sea level. Like 

 the western side of the peninsula, it is mostly rocky or sandy, and 

 sparsely covered with, or in places entirely destitute of, vegetation. 

 On the western side, from the crest-line downward, between 1,500 and 

 2.000 feet altitude, there is a considerable forest of pines {Pinns mtiri- 

 cata). This forest, from which much was expected, proved to be a 

 very poor collecting ground, although a few beetles, spiders, and ants, 

 not noticed elsewhere on the island, were procured here. Wild goats 

 (descendants of domestic animals) were the only quadrupeds seen; but 

 deer, no doubt, inhabit the island, since two pairs of discarded antlers 

 were found. There were also indications of the presence of a rodent, 

 probably a species of J^eotomys (Cave Rat). 



Sixteen species of land-birds were noted, five of them being repre- 

 sented, so far as my observation is concerned, by a single specimen 

 each; some of them may have been stragglers from the main land, as 

 they were seeu during the period of migration. 



A "horned toad" {Phyrnosoma), three or four species of lizards, a 

 tree-frog {Hyla), a few insects, and a land snail {Helix), comprised, ap- 

 l^arently, with the other creatures herein enumerated, all there is of 

 animal life on the island. 



The plants of Cerros Island are partly Californian and partly Lower 

 Californian, some of the species of the southern part of the peninsula 

 growing there. The California Holly [Heteromeles arhutifolia) and Ju- 

 niperus caUfornicus were found, as well as the above-mentioned pine, 

 the former growing in the pine forest. Fishermen go from all points of 

 the compass to get the water from the spring on Cerros Island, desig- 

 nated on the charts " Watering place." This water is not good, bu*; 



