No. 1.— Birds of the Cape Region of Lower California. 
By WiuiaAM BREWSTER. 
INTRODUCTION. 
In 1887 Mr. M. Abbott Frazar spent about nine months collecting 
_ for me in Lower California. During this period he obtained upwards of 
4,400 birds, among which were several new to science, besides a number 
hitherto unknown from the Cape Region. Of the quality of his speci- 
mens and of the industry and intelligence which he displayed in collect- 
ing them it would be impossible to speak too highly. Indeed, it is 
probable that no collection of equal size and excellence was ever before 
accumulated by any one man within so short a space of time. The 
skins are beautifully prepared, and the series representing the resident 
or more characteristic Cape birds are sufficiently large to illustrate very 
fully the individual, as well as age and seasonal, variations to which 
each form is subject. Mr. Frazar failed, however, to secure many nests 
or eggs and — what is even more to be regretted — his field notes, de- 
scriptive of the localities which he visited and of the habits, behavior, 
and songs of their most interesting birds, are, in most respects, disap- 
pointingly brief and inadequate. I have culled from his journals and 
from the evidence supplied by his specimens, every fact or suggestion 
‘which has seemed worthy of permanent record, and I have supplemented 
the matter thus obtained by drawing freely on the published accounts of 
other observers who have visited the same region, among whom Mr. 
Xantus, Mr. Belding, Mr. Bryant, and Mr. Authony are, of course, the 
most prominent. 
The biographical material gathered from these sources includes, { 
trust, all the information of obvious value and pertinence which is at 
present accessible, but it is undeniably inconsiderable in quantity and 
colorless in character. The simple truth is that the ornithologists who 
have thus far visited Lower California have devoted most of their atten- 
tion to collecting and preparing specimens and but very little to making, 
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