GENERAL KEMARKS ON TOE BASIN AVIFAUNA. 377 



42. — Kamas Prairie, Utah (July 9, 18G9). — Kamas Prairie is a grassy- 

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

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

 of meadow localities, with the addition oi Act'durns lartfam'ms, which seemed 

 to be quite common. 



43. Provo River, Utah (July 10-11, 1869).— 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 Tiirdus fasccscens 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: 

 Galeoscoptes carolinensis (abundant), Setophaga ruticiUa (abundant), Zcna;- 

 diira carolinensis (abundant), JDendrwca cestiva, McJospiza faUax, Icterus 

 bidlocki, etc. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE AVIFAUNA OF THE GREAT 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 slo})e 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 merely 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 chmate, with varia- 

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

 summer at 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 barrier to the distribution of 

 the species than might be supposed, as Is clearly attested l)y the occurrence 

 of a large proportion of the Callfoi-nlan species on the eastern sloi)e of the 



