266 Dr. E. Coues. — From Arizona to the Pacific. 



is found in the moist meadows, and over the marshy tracts of 

 the river the common Circus hudsonius may always be seen. 



Leaving the Mojave at Lane^s Crossing, we in one day got 

 through the Cajou Pass of the San Bernadino Mountains. This 

 pass is about the most eastern recorded locality for the beautiful 

 Oreortijw pictus ; and, regarding the other Quail of California, 

 Lophortyx calif ornicus, we need here have no fear that we shall ever 

 be puzzled with a supposed hybrid between it and L. gambeli; 

 for no suspicion of the latter's presence here is to be entertained. 

 Oreortyx and Lophortyx are so radically distinct in the nature 

 of the localities they frequent, as to be distinguished by the 

 people as the "^'Mountain" and ''Valley^' Quail. 



Behind San Bernadino and the coast lies about eighty-five 

 miles of plain, open and flat, though by no means desert and 

 sterile, the continuity of which is hardly interrupted. Besides 

 the constant features of such plains — Eremoj)hila cornuta and 

 Atithus ludovicianus — we find two very interesting birds in con- 

 siderable numbers. One of these is Athene cunicularia, which 

 I supposed to replace A. hypogaa in the regions west of the 

 Rocky Mountains. I must confess I have my doubts regardnig 

 this strict distribution of the two, and also as to whether they 

 are really distinct, which, however, this is not the place to dis- 

 cuss. The Owls are very numerous, living in the burrows of 

 Spermophilus heecheyi, a Marmot-Squirrel exceedingly common 

 in Southern California, though I saw none of its " towns^^ any- 

 thing approaching in size those of Cynomys ludovicianus that I 

 met with on the Arkansaw river. The other bird is jEgialites 

 montanus, which seems to me most inaccurately named ; for, on 

 the many occasions I have met with the species, it has always 

 been on open, dry, flat, sandy or grassy plains, and never on 

 mountains. It may possibly retire to these latter to breed, but 

 I do not think this is the case. Other naturalists support the 

 assertion that the species is exclusively confined to the plains. 



It seems, too, to have no special inclination for the vicinity of 

 water, any more than has Grus canadensis, or, I had almost said, 

 Eremophila cornuta. It is a familiar and unsuspicious bird, 

 and, when not often disturbed, admits of a very near approach, 

 running rapidly and gracefully, with head lowered, often stop- 



