


416 NATURALIST IN CALIFORNIA. 
winter than the |S. socialis, but the first birds which I could 
consider as probably the leaders of the summer migration, 
were, as it happened, of a new species, viz., Helminthophaga 
Lucie, or Lucy’s Warbler, which I shot at first sight on 
March 29th, the two first being males, and attracting my 
notice by their notes, as their small size and concealment in 
the dense mesquite thickets, which were just leafing out, 
would have otherwise prevented their discovery for a long 
time. They may even be winter residents in the valley like 
the allied Z7. celata. 
The first nest I found with eggs was that of a Shrike 
(Lanius excubitoroides) on the 19th, and on the 26th ob- 
tained the first eggs of the Quail, of the Yellow-headed 
Titmouse (which builds an extraordinary closed nest o 
thorny twigs, like the magpies's in miniature), and of 
Abert's Pipilo. : 
Burrows were not uncommon which may have been made 
by Foxes or by the Badger (/Tuxidea Americana). On 
March 30th, visiting a steel trap which I had set for bur- 
rowing animals I was surprised to find in it a Swift Fox 
( Vulpes veloz) caught by the toes. Having no way of se- 
curing it alive, I was obliged to make a dead specimen of it 
at once, fearing it might tear itself away. This is one of 
the mammalia which has not yet been detected west of the 
Colorado, though it undoubtedly exists there, and is indeed 
but a dwarf variety of the common Red Fox. Other mam- 
mals which I had obtained were Gambel’s Woodmouse, be- 
fore mentioned; Audubon’s Hare (fur finer than near the 
coast, approaching Lepus artemisie), Coyoté (Canis la- 
frans), killed by the dogs while running through the camp 

one moonlight night in January; Brush-tailed Rat (.Perog- 
_ nathus penicillatus), quite common in the thatched roofs; 
Dark Woodmouse (Hesperomys austerus?), before found 
only in Washington Territory, but undistinguishable by de- 
-Seriptions ; Boyle's Woodmouse, probably a mere long-tailed 
PA CO EY O EN ORTE ET ROA AUS E ET CN ET MEE TESS, ERS I E LISTE NS E EE EE E RE 

c Variety of Gambel’s; the Mexican Woodrat (Neotoma Mex- 

