REPORT UPON AND LIST OF BIRDS COLLECTED BY THE EXPEDITION FOR 

 GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS WEST 

 OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN IN 1873, LIEUT. G. M. WHEELER, 

 CORPS OF ENGINEERS, IN CHARGE. 



BY H. W. HENSHAW, APRIL, 1874. 



The report presented in the following pages is based upon the ma- 

 terial gathered during the field-season of 1873, in connection with the 

 geographical and geological survey west of the one hundredth meridian, 

 made under the auspices of the Engineer Department, Lieut. G. M. 

 Wheeler commanding. It includes not only my own work, but also the 

 results in this department of both Drs. Eothrock and Newberry, jr., by 

 whose joint labors some two hundred birds were added to the collection, 

 and to each of whom I am indebted for certain information respecting 

 the habits and range of species noted by them, some of which were not 

 met with by myself. All such information has been made available, 

 and will be found accredited to its proper source. The season's collec- 

 tion of birds amounted to very nearly twelve hundred specimens, repre- 

 senting over two hundred species. Others also were noted, and their 

 identity ascertained beyond doubt, of which no specimens were secured. 

 For convenience of reference, the report is divided into three sections ; 

 this course being rendered necessary by the wide separation of the 

 localities at which the larger portion of the work was done. The first 

 contains the observations made at Denver from May 5 to 22 ; the second, 

 those made at Fort Garland, Southern Colorado, including also much 

 .of the information gathered by Dr. Eothrock in the mountains of Col- 

 orado; while in the third portion are given the results of the joint labors 

 of both Dr. Newberry, jr., and myself, extending over a very large area 

 of country, principally in Eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico, 

 and covering an interval of time from July 15 till November 25. By 

 the kind permission of Lieutenant Wheeler I was enabled to make an 

 early start, and arrived in Denverthe 5th of May, intending to proceed 

 directly to Fort Garland, a locality which had been selected as affording 

 a promising field for natural-history work, more especially in ornithol- 

 ogy. Through the unavoidable detention of my collecting-material, my 

 stay in Denver was prolonged for more than two weeks. This interval 

 till the 22d of May was spent in making daily excursions in the vicinity 

 of the city, more especially along the banks "of the Platte River, which 

 is here tolerably well timbered, principally with cottonwoods, and on 

 Cherry Creek. At the time of my arrival I found the season quite 

 backward, and the vegetation was little, if any, in advance of what I 

 left in the vicinity of Boston. But few of the trees had fairly begun to 

 leaf out, though before my departure the cottonwoods and many others 

 were far advanced in this respect. The observations made at this time 

 are believed to be possessed of very considerable value as giving the time 

 of arrival of quite a large number of species, while the capture of quite a 



