iB9»-] AxTHONT, Bird-! of Soathxvfsfertt New Mexico. 359 



water, raisin<^ broods of vouiif^ tliat reach maturity, perhaps, 

 before the rains of September iiitrotUice water as an article of 

 ever\ dav use. 



ISJv observations extend from the last week in February to the 

 last of Octobei- in iSS6 and from the last of September to 

 December i6 in 18S9. During the months of June and July, 

 and until August 15, the tempeiature during the day ranged 

 from 1 10° Fahr. to i 18° with frequent records of 125". No rains 

 fell until the latter part of August, when heavy storms of short 

 duration formed several small ponds in the valle^-s, the lower 

 part of the Playa Valley, sixteen miles west of Apache, being a 

 sheet of water twenty miles in length by three miles wide, hav- 

 ing a depth of not over ten inches, and lasting until late Septem- 

 ber. Here were found several species of Ducks and Geese, birds 

 not properly belonging to the region, as it is only in unusually 

 wet seasons that there is sufficient water to induce them to stop. 



With the August rains came the first green grass ; the land- 

 scape which since February had presented a burned, dead ap- 

 pearance, soon began to show signs of a coming springtime. 

 The agaves sent up their blossom stalks, which in many cases 

 reached a height of twenty-five feet; the ocotillos ventured to put 

 out a fringe of small oval leaves, the first they had worn for 

 eight months; and in an incredibly short time the agaves were 

 crowned with a pyramid of waxy yellow flowers, furnishing an 

 unfiuling repast for thousands of Hummingbirds that had sud- 

 denly appeared on their southward journey. Cassin's Sparrows 

 became common about the mouths of the arroyos where the 

 grass was the greenest, and many species not noticed during the 

 spring migration became more or less abundant. 



Owing to hostile Apaches it was necessary to avoid the higher 

 mountain ranges — the Hachita and Animas, as well as fiivora- 

 ble points in the Sierra Nevada just south of the boundary. 

 Manv interesting records were thus lost, and the list becomes one 

 of species inhabiting the barren hills and desert plains of south- 

 western New Mexico. 



I. Anas carolinensis. Green-winged Teal. — One was shot from a 

 flock of ^. discors, September 13, on a small pond seven miles east of 

 Apache; two were taken at Hachita ten miles west of that point in 

 October, 18S9. 



