The IVater-fowl of the Pacific Coast 559 



birds are plenty all along the open shore. Hence, 

 as far down as Giiaymas and below, duck-shoot- 

 ing may be had all winter. 



This whole gulf is the winter home of myriads 

 of birds that breed in the great basin between 

 the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. 

 Many winter in Arizona and along the Colorado, 

 but the great rendezvous is at the mouth of the 

 river and from there down each shore. These 

 birds are joined by myriads more that cross the 

 mountains of southern California. In the wet 

 meadows on the top of San Pedro Martir, two 

 hundred miles in Lower California below the 

 American line, I have found plenty of ducks in 

 September six thousand feet above the sea. This 

 was but ten miles from the eastern rim, three 

 thousand feet higher, over which the gulf shim- 

 mers nearly two miles below. These ducks were 

 no doubt waiting for colder weather to make the 

 plunge. I could not determine whether they bred 

 there or not. But ducks appear early on the 

 ponds at five thousand feet on the mountains in 

 southern California and then cross two hundred 

 miles or more of perfect desert to the Colorado. 



I have several times found shore-birds crossing 

 the desert by way of the Mojave River, — dry 

 except at long intervals, — making for the Pacific 

 Coast, while in spring large flocks of sand-hill 

 cranes, swinging high over the mountains on their 



