GENERAL KEMAKKS ON TOE BASIN AVIFAUNA. 377 



42. — Kamas Prairie, Utah (July 9, 18G9). — Kamas Prairie is a gri'assy 

 valley, lying between the western spur of the Uintahs and the rolling 

 eastern foot-hills of the Wahsatch. We noticed there the ordinary species 

 of meadow localities, with the addition oi Actiturus bartramitis, Avhich seemed 

 to be quite common. 



43. Provo River, Utah (Jul}- 10-11, 18G9).— We followed this river, 

 from the valley in which Heber City is situated, to Provo, near the .shore 

 of Utah Lake, through the deep and picturesque canon cleft between two 

 high peaks of the Wahsatch range. Among the dense and extensive willow 

 thickets along this river we first found Tardus fuscescens and Parus septen- 

 trionalis (the former in great abundance), and the Magpie again numerous. 

 The other species noticed along this river were, mainly, the following: 

 Galcoscoptes carolinensts (abundant), Setophaga ruticilla (abundant), Zence- 

 dura carolinensis (abundant), Dendrceca cestiva, 3Ielospiza fallax, Icterius 

 hullocki, etc. 



GENERAL REMARKS 0\ THE AVIFAUNA OF THE OUEAT BASIN. 



The total number of species of birds observed during the exploration 

 is 262, of which only 24 were not seen east of the western slope of the 

 Sierra Nevada ; thus leaving a total of 238 species noticed in the Great 

 Basin, including the approximate slopes of the Sierra Nevada and Wah- 

 satch ranges, which form the boundary of the district on the west and 

 east. This number includes both winter and summer birds, as well as the 

 transient species, or those which mei'ely pass through in the spring and fall ; 

 the latter were comparatively very few, however, since the complicated 

 topography of the country afforded such a diversity of climate, with varia- 

 tions of altitude, that extreme northern and southern species passed the 

 sunmierat different elevations on the same mountain ranges. Although the 

 Great Basin forms a natural " Province" of the Western Region, the Sierra 

 Nevada and main Rocky Mountain ranges forming its longitudinal bounda- 

 ries, the mountains form much less of an actual hairier to the distribution of 

 the species than might be supposed, as is clearly attested by the occurrence 

 of a large proportion of i\\e Californian species on the eastern slope of the 



