118 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



NOTES ON THE ORIVITHOLOOY OF SOUTHERN TEXAS, BEING A LIST OF 

 BIRDS OBSERVED IN THE VICINITY OF FORT BROWN, TEXAS, FROM 

 FEBRUARY, 1876, TO JUNE, 1878. 



By JAMES C. MERRILL, Assistant Surgeon IT. 8. Army. 



The post of Fort Brown, Texas, in the immediate vicinity of which 

 most of the following observations were made, is at the extreme 

 southern poiut of the State, in latitude 25° 53' 1G", longitude 07° 

 13'. It adjoins the town of Brownsville, on the left bank of the Eio 

 Grande, and across the river is Matamoras, in the Mexican State of 

 Tamaulipas. The nearest part of the Gulf coast is about eighteen miles 

 distant. The surrounding country is level, and mostly covered with 

 low chaparral; towards the coast this becomes more sparse, and gives 

 place to extensive prairies, broken by shallow, brackish lagoons and 

 sand ridges, with a scanty growth of cactus and yucca. The average 

 annual temperature is about 73° Fahrenheit; snow and ice are unknown, 

 and slight frosts are rare. But little rain falls from March to Septem- 

 ber. This region offers an excellent field for the ornithologist. Besides 

 a very large number of northern migrants that either remain throughout 

 the winter or pass farther south, there are many forms characteristic of 

 the river valley, and other Mexican species, either regular summer vis- 

 itors or stragglers that are new to the United States fauna. A namber 

 of the latter class were obtained within our limits for the first time,* and 

 others by Mr. G. B. Sennett; but there are doubtless many more yet to be 

 found. t 



Of the localities mentioned in this list, Brazos and Padre Islands are 

 the parts of the Gulf coast nearest the fort; they are long, narrow sand 

 ridges, almost destitute of vegetation. A similar formation is seen in 

 the outer beach on the south shore of Long Island. Santa Maria and 

 Edinburgh (now Hidalgo) are on (lie river, about twenty-eight and sixty 

 miles respectively above the fort byroad. Here the character of the 

 country changes; the trees are much higher, and near the last-named 

 settlement the land begins to rise. The avifauna, too, is somewhat dif- 

 ferent, and three species} in particular stop abruptly there. As a matter 

 of local interest, an asterisk is prefixed to those species that are known 

 to breed within the limits of the fort and government reservation. 



* ThnjothoruH ludoriciaiiuH var. bcrlandieri , Vireosylvia Jlavoviridis, Cyanospiza versicolor, 

 Myiarchus crythrocercus var. coopcri, Amaziha fuscicaudata, A. yncatanensis, Nyctidromm 

 albicollis, Stumella magna var. mcjrica?ia, Molothrus ameus, Buteo albicaudatua, Parra 

 (jymno8toma, and Podiceps dominicus. 



t Several species of Parrots are found about, Vittoria, ninety miles south of Fort 

 Brown, tome of which must occasionally cross the Rio Grande. During the summer 

 of 1877, two specimens of a Trogon w T ere killed north of the river, one near Ringgold 

 Barracks, the second at Las Cuevas, some miles lower down. They were described 

 to me by the persons who shot them, but unfortunately they were not preserved. [Un- 

 doubtedly T. amMguus, Gould. — R. R.] 



XCampylorhynchus brunneicapilhis, Auriparus Jlaviceps, and Callipepla squamata. 



