I^^:^ AxTHoxY. Birds of Sail Fernando. L. Cal. F^^ril 



It must be distinctly understood that all of the foregoing facts, 

 as well as those which are to follow on ' Fall Migration,' are 

 local, relating only to the vicinity of Grinnell, Iowa. Every- 

 thing given has been taken from notes which were made in the 

 field, weather excepted. The effect of weather could have been 

 more clearly shown from weather records extending over the 

 whole Mississippi Valley ; but these were not accessible. 



BIRDS OF SAN FERNANDO, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 



BY A. W. ANTHONY. 



The region embraced within the limits of the present paper 

 has for its center the old abandoned copper mines of San 

 Fernando, one league south of the ex-mission of the same name 

 which is situated about twenty-five miles from the Pacific coast of 

 the peninsula, in about latitude 29° 30'. It has an approximate 

 altitude of fifteen hundred feet above sea level and is the center 

 of one of the most barren of the Lower Californian deserts. At 

 the old San Fernando mission is found a little marshy ground and 

 a few pools. of salty, alkaline water that is so disgusting that even 

 mules from more favored lands to the north refuse to drink it 

 until forced to do so by continued thirst. There is enough, how- 

 ever, to nourish a very respectable growth of mesquite, cat-claw 

 and palo verde which extends down the narrow valley for a mile 

 or more below the old ruins of the mission. The mining camp is 

 separated from this, the only water and verdure for forty-five 

 miles, by a low rocky range of hills about three miles in extent. 

 The mines are on the edge of a somewhat open country, which 

 extends to the coast at San Carlos in a series of mesas and level 

 valleys. At the mines, and in two of the arroyos between that 

 point and the coast, wells had been dug and a limited quantity of 

 water obtained at about eight feet in depth. The only natural 

 surface water other than that at the mission was a small tank 



