75 



At this late date the swelling river had overflowed a broad 

 margin of the desert, which was consequently covered with 

 fresh, green vegetation, and alive with waterfowl and song- 

 birds. Teal, ibises, coots, avocets, and stilts, in vast numbers, 

 all more or less indifferent toward the presence of human 

 beings, were feeding along every shoreHne; cormorants, gulls, 

 and terns were noisy and abundant about Volcano Lake; 

 yellow-headed blackbirds, blue grosbeaks, swallows, and other 

 new arrivals from the tropics, swarmed over the verdure on 

 the flood-plain. Further back from the hfe-giving Hardy, 

 on the thirsty vstretches towards the base of the Cocopahs, the 

 shrivelled herbage gave evidence that the ephemeral desert 

 springtime was fast passing. 



On the Lower Californtan Pronghorn. 



The Lower Cahfornian antelope was described as a distinct 

 subspecies, Antilocapra americana peninsularis, by Nelson 

 (1912), who pointed out that the race had closer affinities 

 with the pronghorn of the western United States than with 

 the one inhabiting the Mexican tableland. PhilUps (1913) 

 subsequently confirmed the vaUdity of peninsularis by citing 

 diagnostic cranial characters. The topotypes came from the 

 middle part of the peninsula, but the describer states that the 

 range of this antelope extends northward ''on the gulf side to 

 beyond 32° [north latitude], to the southern end of the Colo- 

 rado Desert." 



Within ten years pronghorn antelopes were abundant in 

 Pattie Basin, but they have now been shot down to a poor 

 remnant, along with the mountain sheep and other mammals 

 that yield meat or trophies. Pronghorns in particular, judging 

 from their history in our western states, seem hterally to 

 wither away before the onslaughts of hunters, their exceed- 

 ingly dehcate adjustment to a rather hmited environment, 

 and consequent non-adaptability, doubtless contributing much 

 toward their rapid extermination. Nelson predicts a brief 

 and unfortunate future for the Lower Californian race, and, 

 in a territory without game laws, the fulfilment of his prophecy 

 is more likely to be hastened than delayed. 



