4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



the war, gaining distinction in the battles of Palo Alto and 

 Resaca de la Palma, and was commissioned Major of the Third 

 Infantry, December 26, 1847. 



In November, 1849, after a year's leave of absence on account 

 of ill health, he was ordered to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He 

 reached San Antonio, January, 1850, and traveled over the 

 route to El Paso, crossing the Pecos February 19, and reaching 

 his destination March 12, where he remained until August 31. 

 In the meantime, he had on June 10 been appointed Inspector- 

 General of the Army, and he now spent several months inspect- 

 ing other posts in the department of New Mexico. 



Inspired no doubt by the novelty of the fauna, General Mc- 

 Call seems to have paid much more serious attention to orni- 

 thology during his sojourn in New Mexico than ever before, 

 and encouraged by Cassin he published, on his return east, his 

 paper on the birds of this region.^ This was a notable contri- 

 bution to ornithology, treating of a country practically unknown. 

 Gambel, who crossed from the Ratone Mts. and Santa Fe to 

 California in 1841, being apparently the only ornithologist who 

 had previously entered it. In this paper Gen. McCall describes 

 us new a Jay, Gyanocwax cassmii, which proved later to be 

 Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, named by Wied in 1841, now 

 known as the Pinon Jay. Also a Purple Finch, Carpodacus 

 obscurus, not different from C. mexicanus frontalis, and a Lark, 

 Otocoris ocddentalis, which still stands in our Check List. 



In 1852 General McCall was engaged in an inspection of the 

 military posts of California and Oregon, Just what his route 

 was upon this tour I have been unable to ascertain, but from 

 the notes contributed to Cassin he evidently paid close atten- 

 tion to the birds which he encountered. On April 22, 1853, 

 finding his impaired health unequal to the duties of his posi- 

 tion, he resigned and retired to his home " Belair" near West 

 Chester, Pa., where he remained until the breaking-out of the 

 Civil War. He then offered his services to the State and was 



' Some Eemarks on the Habits, etc, of Birds met with in Western Texas, 

 between San Antonio and the Rio Grande, and in New Mexico; with descrip- 

 tions of several species believed to have been hitherto undescribed. Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci., PAi7a., V, pp. 213-224, 1851. 



