BREWSTER: BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 11 
leads down an arroyo to the sea beach. Along this it continues for a 
distance of about ten miles and then turns inland, crossing a broad 
table-land to another arroyo, up which it runs to Santiago and thence 
across a second table-land to Miraflores, situated on still a third arroyo 
which the road follows for the remainder of the way to San José. Mr. 
Frazar spent the latter part of August, the entire months of September 
and October and the first twelve days of November, at this place, making 
daily excursions about its outskirts or to the neighboring sea-coast. 
His note-books and collections, as well as the published accounts relat- 
ing to the experiences of Mr. Xantus, Mr. Belding, and Mr. Bryant, 
show that the locality is one of the most interesting and productive, 
ornithologically, of any in the Cape region of which we have definite 
knowledge. 
San José is situated about one and one-half miles from the Gulf 
coast, on the edge of the arroyo, which, at this point, is upwards of two 
miles wide and almost perfectly level. Through it winds a good-sized 
‘brook, which rises among the mountains, and not far from their bases 
disappears beneath the ground, reappearing again some eight miles 
above the town and flowing past it over a broad, sandy bed on its way 
to the sea. Although at the time of Mr. Frazar’s visit, there had been 
no rain for upwards of two years, this stream carried a considerable 
volume of water, much of which, however, was diverted from its natural 
channel to irrigate the bordering bottom lands. These are divided into 
gardens and yield good crops of sugar-cane, cotton, and oranges besides 
corn, beans, sweet potatoes! and such other vegetables as the inhabi- 
tants of the neighboring region require. 
The- banks of the stream, as well as those of the irrigating ditches 
are fringed in places with wild canes and dense bushes. ‘There are 
also a few trees, such as willows, palms, and a kind of poplar.” About a 
mile below the town, the water forms numerous small pools filled with 
cat-o’-nine tails and floating vegetation, and just before reaching the 
ocean it spreads out into a shallow lagoon of about eight acres in 
extent which lies immediately behind the beach ridge. Its outlet was 
repeatedly closed, during Mr. Frazar’s visit, by sand thrown up by the 
surf at high tide, but the water, after rising several feet above its normal 
level, would eventually burst through the temporary barrier and 
escape, sometimes by a new opening. From this point smooth sea- 
1 “Bananas do well at San José, but apples and potatoes they cannot raise, 
although the latter are grown successfully at Aqua Caliente.” Bryant, Zoe, II. 
1891, 195. 
