NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND 

 SOUTH-WESTERN ARIZONA. 



BY G. FREAN MORCOM. 



The material on which the present paper is based, was obtained 

 during a three months' collecting trip made by Mr. F. Stephens 

 (for the writer), in the Spring and early Summer of 1886. 



Mr. Stephens was instructed to make the object of the expe- 

 dition, not so much the accumulation of specimens, as of facts regard- 

 ing the habits of the birds observed. The results are given in his 

 own words: 



It will be necessary to a thorough understanding of the follow- 

 ing notes, for me to call your attention to the general topography 

 of that section of the country in which my collecting was done. 



My first collecting was done in the Cohuilla Valley between 

 April 1st and 19th. I was encamped at a locality known for many 

 years as " Agua Caliente," but there are other springs, even in the 

 same county (San Diego), known by the same name. This place 

 has been lately called " Palm City " (a town-site having been laid 

 out by speculators), but the name is not, nor is it likely to become, 

 widely known. 



The term " Colorado Desert " is correct enough, but the Desert 

 includes too much country for that term to give any definite idea 

 of my locality, which was more than one hundred miles from the 

 Colorado River, which river may be called the eastern limit of the 

 Desert. 



The south-western part, in which I was located, is inhabited 

 by the Cohuilla Indians, hence the name of the valley. There is 

 also a small valley of the same name in the mountains near by, but 

 it is only known locally. What is here called the Cohuilla Valley 

 is the narrow part of the Desert beginning at the San Gorgonio 

 Pass and ending at the Indian village of Toros, which is about forty 

 miles E. S. E. from San Gorgonio Pass. The valley is from five 

 to ten miles wide and is a dry, sandy desert, barren — except for the 

 cacti, larrea bushes, etc., — save around the warm springs and at the 

 mouths of the canons where a stream of water may flow for a few 

 weeks in the spring. 



At the west end San Jacinto Peak rises abruptly from the plain 



