260 Dr. E. Coues.— From Arizona to the Pacific. 
where their large, stout legs enable them to run firmly and 
rapidly. Their flight is swift and desultory, performed with 
quick, jerking motions of their wings and flirting of their long 
broad tails. I saw several other individuals, but was unable to 
procure more than one. The irides were brown, the legs, feet, 
and bill black. 
Fort Mojave, on the Colorado river, in about lat. 35°, is in¬ 
teresting to us as the locality whence were lately procured two 
rare and curious new birds by Dr. J. G. Cooper, so well known 
as an indefatigable and accurate naturalist, and by him named* 
Athene whitneyi and Helminthophaga lucice. The Owl is a di¬ 
minutive little species, about equal to Glaucidium gnoma in size, 
but very widely different in form. Dr. Cooper told me that he 
hardly thinks it is a true Athene , though it comes nearer to that 
genus than to any other North American one. I have just now 
carefully examined the type specimen, and find my friend's views 
fully confirmed. The bird is evidently generically distinct from 
any other North American form, and I have elsewhere so published 
it. The Helminthophaga is a queer little bird, nothing like any 
of its congeners in its colours, which are rather those of a Poli- 
optila than a Sylvicoline, being plumbeous-grey above and 
white beneath, with a chestnut crown and rump. I had myself 
rediscovered it during my stay at Whipple, and obtained several 
specimens, among which was a fledgling just from the nest, 
which differed notably in colour from the adult, wanting the 
chestnut crown—though the rump was of that colour—and 
having the wing-coverts edged and tipped with very light ru¬ 
fous. Both of us have very full notes of the habits of this in¬ 
teresting little bird. 
While at Fort Mojave I gladly availed myself of a kind invi¬ 
tation from the Commanding-General of the Territory to ac¬ 
company him on a pasear down the Colorado river, as far as 
Fort Yuma. This gave me exactly the opportunity I had been 
desiring, of adding to my list the many water-birds to be found 
in the Colorado basin. The month of September was consumed 
in passing down the river to the point where the Gila mingles 
its waters with those of the larger stream, which is the extreme 
* Proc. Californ. Nat. Hist. Soc. 1861, pp. 118 and 120. 
