GLIMPSES OF DESERT BIRD LIFE IN THE GREAT 
BASIN. 
By Harry ©. OBERHOLSER, 
Stretching far away to the westward beyond the slopes of the 
Rocky Mountains lies the country of the Great Basin, the great desert 
region of the United States. From Utah and Arizona it reaches 
north to Oregon, and west to the lofty barrier formed by the Cas- 
cade Range, the Sierra Nevada and the San Bernardino and San 
Jacinto Mountains. This whole vast area is an almost continuous 
desert, spreading indeed its powerful influence to the contiguous 
slopes of the mountains that guard its confines. Yet it is not all 
alike, for many of its parts differ widely in climate, physiography, 
vegetation, and animal life. Mountain ranges of varying height 
and extent, sometimes close together, sometimes with broad valleys 
- interposed, traverse the entire region, most numerously in Nevada 
where they are chiefly parallel, least so in parts of southeastern 
Oregon, extreme southeastern California, and southwestern Arizona. 
The loftiest of these are in central Nevada and in the Death Valley 
country of eastern California. The valleys and plains, often of 
great extent, are stretches of sand, gravel, or clay, with now and 
then the bed of an ephemeral lake conspicuously’ shown by its 
dazzling efflorescence of alkali. 
Rivers are few, the two most important being the Colorado, which, 
except for a small portion of its course, is hardly within the region; 
and the Humboldt, which, after following a tortuous course across 
Nevada, discharges its waters into the outletless Humboldt Lake, 
thus offering itself as a great but ineffectual sacrifice to the all- 
devouring aridity of the desert. There are some smaller streams, 
but most of them, aside from such as issue from the high mountains, 
are only dry washes except during seasons of rain. Springs, some 
of considerable size, occur in the hills and even out on the open 
desert ; while hot springs are to be found in a number of the valleys. 
Lakes, many of which, like so many of the streams, have but a 
transitory existence, yield some relief from the monotony of the 
broad expanses of parched land. Those that are permanent, with 
few exceptions, are in the northern part of the Great Basin, in 
Utah, Nevada, California, and Oregon. They are all shallow, 
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