JUS ZOOLOGY— BIRDS. 



dt birds, all of which had without doubt nested here at an earlier period. 

 Pursuing a southwestern course from Pueblo, over the plains, skirting the 

 Green-Horn Mountains, Fort Garland was reached on the 14th of August, 

 through the Sangre de Cristo Pass. 



Among the birds obtained here was the Rufous-backed Humming Bird 

 (Selasphorus rufus), not hitherto known from this region. The mountains 

 to the eastward of Fort Garland were next entered, and here was noted a quite 

 unexpected paucity of bird life, both in the number of species and the num- 

 ber of individuals. The capture here of the Band-tailed Pigeon (Colwmba 

 fasciata), and the ascertained fact that it is a summer resident at this point, 

 proves a most interesting item in the history of the species, whose range is 

 thus extended far to the eastward. Leaving Fort Garland, Mr. Aiken's party 

 proceeded to the southwest, through the San Luis Valley, afterward ascend- 

 ing to the sources of the Conejos River. In the caiion of this river, the 

 Townsend's Warbler, a bird unknown from this region, was secured. At 

 Blaine's Peak, at an altitude of 13,000 feet, Mr. Aiken enjoyedan opportunity 

 of seeing and obtaining quite a number of specimens of the White-tailed 

 Ptarmigan {Lagopus leucurus). Reaching Pagosa Springs on the 5th of 

 September, two weeks were spent in the vicinity, including a trip into the 

 Gallinas Mountains, New Mexico, and no fewer than eighty species of birds 

 were ascertained to occur in this region within an area of fifty miles ; this 

 proving to be the most productive as well as the most interesting ground of the 

 season. Leaving Pagosa on the 21st of September, a more or less direct route 

 was followed back to Fort Garland, thence to Pueblo. The Alkali Lakes 

 near Fort Garland, mentioned previously, were first visited, andlarge numbers 

 < if water-fowl, ducks, geese, and waders seen. Besides the collection of some 

 three hundred and twenty-five birds made during this brief period, a large 

 number, when is taken into consideration the unfavorable time of year and 

 the haste which necessarily attended the movements of the party to which 

 Mr. Aiken was attached, many of the notes which he was able to make are 

 of great value, and several important items of distribution were elucidated. 



The route pursued by the zoological history party composed of Dr. J. 

 T. Rothrock, Mr. .1. M. Putter, and myself coincided in general with the one 

 followed in 187o ; but, as the party was organized mainly with a view to the 



