328 OliNITUOLOGY. 



the lofty Toyabo Mountains, while a more decided accession of Rocky 

 Mountain and Eastern forms was noticed on the Ruby and East Humboldt 

 ranges, where, however, the number was far less than that encountered on 

 the Wahsatch and in the Salt Lake Valley. 



DESCRIPTION OF LOCALITIES WHERE COLLECTIONS OR OBSERVATIONS WERE MADE. 



1. Vicinity of Sacramento City, California (June G-29, 1867.) — The 

 period of our stay at Sacramento being the midst of the dry season, when 

 the valleys of California are parched by the excessive and pi'otracted 

 drought, the bird-life was found to be comparatively scant, and, as in the 

 Interior, though not to so great an extent, confined within the very restricted 

 limits wdiere the vegetation was nourished by the presence of water — 

 either that of natural streams or that derived from artificial irrigation. But 

 even there the abundance of the birds was due to the number of individ- 

 uals of each kind, rather tlian of tlie species themselves. Away from the 

 vicinity of the city, the country at the time of our sojourn presented a 

 scorched a2)pearance, the rolling plains being destitute of rivulets or pools, 

 all the surface-moisture having been long since extracted by the excessive 

 and prolonged heat; the ground itself was baked to a tile-like hardness 

 except where ground to dust, and what remained of the grass and herbage 

 ■was burnt to a dingy yellow, while the scant foliage of the scattered oaks 

 was desiccated to a russet-brownness. In the moister locations, near the 

 river, the aspect of the landscape was more inviting, however, for green 

 meadow-lands prevailed, with woods of good-sized trees along the river 

 l)ank (among which the western plane tree, Platanns racemosa, was con- 

 spicuous from its white branches), with a pleasing variety of oak, willow, 

 and cotton-wood copses, interspersed with cultivated farms, with here and 

 there isolated large cotton-wood trees left in the fields for shade. Exten- 

 sive marshes, connected with the river, were filled with tall rushes, or tide 

 {Scirpiis valiclus), and other aquatics, many of them being hemmed in by 

 skirting jungles of willows and other shntbs, having a dense, often impen- 

 etrable, undergrowth. Waste places were overspread by a rank growth 

 of Avild chamomile, or dog-fennel (Maritta cotula), and large thistles, the 

 latter standing chiefly in the fence-corners, where they presented to the 



