12 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
beaches backed by sand-dunes stretch as far as the eye can reach in both 
directions, to the southwest curving gently outward to form the rocky 
promontory known as San José del Cabo. 
A distinction between this name and the shorter appellation San 
José, which, I believe, is the current and no doubt proper term for the 
village itself, was apparently made by Mr. Xantus in labeling his 
specimens, although there are reasons for believing that some of those 
which are marked ‘‘San José del Cabo” were really taken at or near 
the mouth of the river, and hence at some distance from the Cape 
itself. Mr. Belding employs both names in connections which indicate 
that he regarded them as synonymous. Mr. Bryant, in his Catalogue 
of the birds of Lower California, invariably uses the longer title, 
applying it to all records relating to the village of San José, as well as 
to the neighboring sea-coast, without apparent regard to the form in 
which they originally appeared. No doubt, the fact that there are 
several San Josés, but only one San José del Cabo, in Lower California, 
prompted him to adopt this course, which, for the same reason, I have 
also followed, whenever it has seemed admissible, in the present 
paper. 
It is not surprising that so rare a combination of attractive conditions 
as that just mentioned, — especially in a country so generally arid and 
barren as Lower California —should have given San José del Cabo 
an exceptionally rich and varied bird fauna. The smaller insectivorous 
or seed-eating birds find congenial shelter and abundance of food in the 
luxuriant vegetation with which the village and its immediate neigh- 
borhood are favored ; reed-loving species, such as Marsh Wrens, Yellow- 
throats, Rails, and Gallinules, inhabit the pools lower down the river ; 
the shallow lagoon at its mouth affords a perfect paradise for waders 
and waterfowl of many different varieties, while Plover, Sandpipers, 
Gulls, Terns, Cormorants, Pelicans, and even such ultra-typical marine 
birds as Petrels and Shearwaters, frequent the neighboring sandy 
beaches or at least pass over or near them on their flights up and down 
the coast. 
