May. 1903 I 
THE CONDOR 
75 
Bird Motes from Eastern California and Western Arizona. 
BY FRANK STEPHENS. 
I N the summer of 1902 I made a collecting trip through portions of eastern Cali- 
fornia and western Arizona in the interests of the U. S. Biological Survey. By 
the kind permission of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the Biological Survey, I 
am enabled to publish the bird notes in The Condor. 
A description of the route followed will be necessary for a clear understanding 
of the region worked over and the relationships of the bird life therein. 
Leaving the eastern end of the San Gorgonio Pass the middle of May we 
crossed a small corner of the Colorado Desert; thence we traveled northward 
through the Morongo Pass at the eastern end of the San Bernardino Mountains, 
coming out on the Mohave Desert. Another day’s drive eastward took us to 
Twenty-nine Palms, a small oasis of rather alkaline soil surrounded by barren 
desert. There was little bird life here and a sand storm which continued through 
our short stay kept the few birds there were about from showing themselves. A 
drive of forty miles northward over very sandy desert took us to the next water at 
Bagdad on the Santa Fe R. R. We then followed the route of the railroad north- 
east fifty miles to the little .station of Fenner, where we made a side trip twenty- 
five miles northward to the Providence Mountains. Soon after leaving Fenner we 
began to see a little vegetation and as we neared the mountains it became more 
common and signs of animal life were seen. A fortnight’s stay at the Providence 
Mountains proved very interesting. This range is extremely rugged, and is com- 
posed of limestone and porphyry. It is well timbered with pinyon and juniper. 
Although the higher peaks exceed 7,000 feet in altitude they carry no yellow 
pine. On the plain at the base of the mountains is a fair growth of larrea and sev- 
eral species of cactuses. Among the pinyons was a good growth of a species of 
bunch grass, the only good pasturage we found for our horses on the whole trip. 
Water was very scarce, three springs and two wells comprising all the knowm 
waters of this high, well timbered range. 
Returning to Fenner we travelled near the railroad to the Colorado River at 
Needles. We stopped a week in the river bottoms some twenty miles below Fort 
Mohave, where Dr. Cooper spent several months forty years ago. On leaving the 
Colorado we turned northeast, crossing a barren range of mountains by a very 
steep and rough road, and finding the next spring at Little Meadows on the east- 
ern slope, altitude 2700. Thence we went to Kingman and Beale Spring in a 
basaltic mesa region. From there we made another side trip southeast into the 
Hualapai Mountains. All this region was suffering from a four years’ drouth and 
the springs in the Haulapais were mostly dried up. We staid a fortnight at a 
spring where a sawmill had once been located, at about 6000 feet altitude. The 
highest peaks reach 8000 feet altitude or more. This granite range much resembles 
the south Californian mountains, as it is covered with thick low brush on the 
southern slopes and carries some pinyon at the base, and on the northern slopes 
above 5500 altitude a fair growth of yellow pine. 
Returning to Kingman we struck eastward around the northern end of the 
Hualapai Mountains and down into the narrow valley of Big Sandy Creek, a tribu- 
tary of Bill Williams River. The Big Sandy proved an interesting bird region, as 
a narrow tongue of the Lower Austral life zone reaches up it to about latitude 
35°. Along the creek were groves of willow, cottonwood and mesquite, and 
