158 Dr. Coues on the Ornithology of a Prairie- Journey, 



stages, had good opportunities for observing and collecting. 

 Now, after a four months* residence, I have become somewhat 

 familiar with the avifauna of this region, and am able to fur- 

 nish a tolerably full list of its birds, with some brief notes. But 

 first I must sketch, ornithologically, the route hither. 



At St. Louis, Missouri, I had the first indication that I was 

 entering upon an avifauna differing from that of the east, by 

 the abundant presence of Chondestes grammica. Throughout 

 my whole course this bird was my constant and famiUar com- 

 panion. Near Fort Riley, Kansas, where (delayed by Indian 

 hostilities) I spent ten days collecting, I found further changes, 

 though the type of the fauna was still essentially eastern. The 

 Field-Larks had become Sturnella neglecta, the Night- Hawks 

 Chordiles henryi; and I met with Antt-ostomus nuttalli, and num- 

 bers of Vireo belli. Actiturus bartramius, Actodromas bunapartii, 

 and Ereunetes pusillus were exceedingly numerous, and I shot 

 one Spizella pallida. This was in the last week of May. 



Directly westward of Fort Riley, the traveller at once comes 

 upon the " Great Prairie '' — that vast level flower-bed which 

 stretches without interruption along the Santa Fe road to the 

 Arkansas River, and with but few breaks quite to the Raton 

 Mountains. Here I immediately met with the true prairie-birds. 

 Calamospiza bicolor and Xanthocephalus icterocephalus were abun- 

 dant, especially the former, which is the bird, par excellence, of 

 those regions. Eremophila cornuta, as is well known, breeds 

 in the west much further south than in the east, where, in its 

 spring migration, it does not stop much short of Labrador. 

 Sturnella neglecta was still abundant. Euspiza americana and 

 Cuturniculus passerinus held out a few days longer, and then dis- 

 appeared. The Calamospiza stopped abruptly at the first moun- 

 tains we met ; the Xanthocephalus, Eremophila, and Sturnella 

 continued with us through New Mexico into Arizona. 



It was here that I first found the " towns " of Prairie-Dogs 

 {Cynomys ludovicianus) , with, as usual, abundance of Athene 

 hypogcea, as well as the inevitable Rattle- snakes. 



Wherever there were ponds, marshes, or small lakes on the 

 prairie, I found Recurvirostra americana, Numenius longirostris, 

 Steganopus ivilsoni, jEgialites vociferus, Actodromas bonapartii, 



