444 Bailey, Siimmer Birdf of San Miguel County, N. M. \_o^. 



depressions on the plains where there was moisture. In the 

 higher reaches of the juniper and nut pine — Upper Sonoran — 

 section, some of the characteristic birds were Piiion and Wood- 

 house Jays, Western Lark Sparrows, Caiion Towhees, Gray Tit- 

 mice, and Lead-colored Bush-tits. In going from the Staked 

 Plains northwest toward the Rocky Mountains, the mesas rising 

 from the plains grew successively higher, and Transition zone 

 yellow pines were reported to us as far east as Pablo Montoya 

 Grant. The first that we saw were in the central part of the 

 county, on the top of Mesa del Agua de la Yegua, which reaches 

 an altitude of 7000 feet, rising 1000 feet from the juniper plain. 

 With the pines we found many of the birds that usually penetrate 

 the Transition zone, including the Long-crested Jay, Lewis Wood- 

 pecker, the Western Wood Pewee, Western Chipping Sparrow, 

 Grace Warbler, and the Rocky Mountain and Pygmy Nut- 

 hatches. In the southwestern part of the county the cultivated 

 bottom lands of the Pecos afforded such birds as the Kingbird, 

 San Diego Redwing, Black-headed Grosbeak, Arkansas Goldfinch, 

 Yellow Warbler, and Long-tailed Chat. The extreme northwestern 

 part of the county takes in the southeastern end of the Rocky 

 Mountains and part of the upper Pecos River. This Dr. Mitchell 

 writes me he did not explore, his mountain work being confined 

 to the ''eastern drainage of the Vegas ranges." Most of the 

 mountain birds were found by him, however, on the eastern side 

 of the range. Those which we found on the Pecos within the 

 county included such species as the Dusky Grouse, Band-tailed 

 Pigeon, Merriam Turkey, Clark Crow, Mountain Chickadee, 

 Solitaire, and Chestnut-backed and Mountain Bluebirds. As the 

 San Miguel County line apparently crosses the mountains of the 

 Upper Pecos at about 10,500 feet, I have not listed species such 

 as the Gray-headed Junco, White-crowned Sparrow, Ruby-crowned 

 Kinglet, and Audubon Hermit Thrush, which we found at 11,000 

 feet, although there are peaks east of the Pecos that we did not 

 visit which reach as high as 11,500 feet, on which these birds 

 probably occur, and all of the species of course belong to San 

 Miguel County as migrants, passing through it on their way to 

 and from the higher parts of the mountains. 



As we entered the county too late to find the spring migrants 



