160 Dr. Coues on the Ornithology of a Praijie- Journey, 



I have been much puzzled by the specimens of Chordiles from 

 different regions. The large and light-coloured ones about 

 Missouri and Kansas I had little trouble in referring to C. henryi. 

 When in Santa Fe and throughout New Mexico, however, all I 

 saw struck me as being unusually small, and yet, on shooting 

 them, I could not see in what way they differed from C virgi- 

 nianus. They certainly were not C. henryi. 



Proceeding westward from Fort Wingate, we immediately 

 crossed the " Continental Backbone " at the Zuni Pass, and 

 shortly afterwards entered Arizona. As the avifauna of the 

 rest of the journey hardly differs from that proper to Fort 

 Whipple itself, I will proceed at once to notice the latter. 



Fort Whipple is situated about midway between the 34th and 

 35th parallels of north latitude, and some sixty miles a little 

 to the south of west from the celebrated San Francisco Moun- 

 tains. To the south and west the vicinity is broken and 

 mountainous, successive tiers of pine-covered elevations rising 

 to from 8,000 to 10,000 feet. Northward and eastward the 

 country is more open and bare for many miles. The average 

 altitude of the place is just about 7500 feet. We are within the 

 great belt of the Coniferce, pines being the characteristic Sylva. 

 The mountains proper are covered with Abies douglasi, Pinus 

 edulis, and several other species. On the open and rocky or 

 barren hill-sides we have three species of dwarf oaks — rather 

 bushes than trees — Algarohia glandulosa, Obione canescens, Ai^c- 

 tostaphylus tomentosa, Agave americana, Juniperus pachyder'ma, 

 and many Cactacece of the genera Opuntia, Cereus, Mammillana, 

 Echinocactus, and Yucca. The numerous mountain ravines 

 coalesce into what is locally known as Granite Creek, one of the 

 heads of the San Francisco river, a tributary of the Gila. The 

 bottoms of these ravines are dry, except during heavy storms. 

 Their beds and banks are covered thickly with a growth of 

 Populus, Salix, Juglans, Cerasus, Vitis, &c. The open plains 

 are either dry and sandy, or covered with ' Gramma ' and other 

 grasses. 



Among the large game-mammals of the region are to be enu- 

 merated Ursus horribilis, U. americanus, with its variety cinna- 

 momeus, Cervus macrotis and C. virghiianus, Ovis montana, Canis 



