1877.] 109 IBendire, 



General Meeting. March 21, 1877. 



The President, Mr. T. T. Bouve, in the chair. Twenty- 

 seven persons present. 



The following paper was read : 



Notes on some of the Birds found in Southeastern Ore- 

 gon, PARTICULARLY IN THE VlCINITY OF CAMP HARNEY, 



from November, 1874, to January, 1877. By Captain 

 Ch. Bendire, U. S. Army. 



This list is not given as a complete exponent of the avi-fauna of 

 Southeastern Oregon. I am well aware that there still remain many 

 species to be added, particularly of water birds. As far as it goes, 

 it has been compiled from material now in the hands of Lt. G. R. 

 Bacon, U. S. A., and from personal observations. Camp Harney 

 (the central point of my investigations) is located on the southern 

 slope of one of the western spurs of the Blue Mountains of Oregon, 

 at an altitude of about 4800 feet in 43° 80' latitude, and 41° 25' lon- 

 gitude, west of Washington. To the north of the post the country 

 is mountainous and generally well-timbered with forests of pine, 

 spruce and fir, and groves of aspens and junipers; in all other direc- 

 tions it is almost destitute of trees of any size, a few straggling juni- 

 per and mountain mahogany bushes being sparingly distributed over 

 the different mountain ranges. The highest and most important of 

 these is Steen's Mountain, about seventy miles to the south of the 

 post, portions of which range are covered with snow the year round. 

 Excepting a few warm and fertile river valleys, nearly the whole 

 extent of country is unfit for agriculture. About two-thirds of it is 

 covered with sagebrush and greasewood wastes, volcanic table-lands, 

 etc., the balance with nutritious grasses, and well adapted for stock- 

 raising purposes. As a general thing, the country may be called 

 well watered throughout; a continuous chain of shallow lakes extends 

 from here to the southwest for more than two hundred miles, and 

 some of these are from ten to twenty miles wide and thirty to fifty 

 miles in length. The water in most of them is brackish, and barely 

 fit to drink. Fine springs, both hot and cold, are also numerous. 

 The many lakes form- a natural highway and convenient resting 

 places for the immense hordes of water fowl passing through here 

 during the spring and fall migrations ; they also furnish safe and 



