318 REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. 
tected, and is to be accounted for through the natural dispersion of ^ species. Else; 
where as at several localities near Camp B.dwell, Cal., the severalVelvet 
scendants of birds brought from the Pacific slope and let loose to shift for themselves. 
They are nowhere in this region very numerous. , , , v i 
JJesription of first plumage of young— Prevailing color of the head, neck, back an l 
breast grayish olive, more plumbeous beneath, and everywhere more or less sprinkled 
with white ; the markings on the breast larger and of more regularly deltoid foim , 
chin, whitish; throat and cheeks mixed with dark plumbeous, a dusky auricular 
patch with an indistinct whitish line just above. Crest, li inches long;black, with 
tips irregularlv marked with zigzag lines of pale fulvous. Scapulars, wing-coverts, 
tertials, and rectrices pale brownish, finely yermicnlated with dusky. ^° raen 
whitish ; flanks marked with chestnut and white; bill blackish, feet pale brown. 
Lophortyx Bonaparte. 
L. californicu8 (Shaw). California Valley Quail. _ 
This quail is nowhere indigenous along the eastern slope, as the high mountains offer 
a complete barrier to its extension. Those introduced about Carson appear to just 
hold their own. 
CHARADRIIDiE—Plovers. 
H5GIALITIS Boie. 
A. vocifm'us (L.). Killdeer Plover. 
An abundant summer inhabitant of this whole region, the mountains excepted. 
Nests on the marshy borders of all the lakes. Numerous fresh eggs were found at 
Washoe Lake, Nevada, May 30. 
RECURVIROSTRIDiE—Stilts, Avocets. 
Recurvirostra Linnaeus. 
H. americana (Gmel.). American Avocet. 
Our knowledge of the range of this species over the United States is so full and 
complete that little remains to be added. Except immediately upon the Pacific coast, 
where it is found in comparatively small numbers, no portion of the Rocky Mountains 
and the region to the westward has been entered by our parties without finding this 
bird, at the proper season and in suitable localities, abundant. 
During the migrations its distribution in the West is extremely general, and its 
presence is to be expected along all of the streams, ponds, and lakes, except, perhaps, 
in the highest mountainous districts, from the Mississippi to the Pacific. 
In the breeding season its range is scarcely less restricted, and those sections only 
are exempt from its visits that lack the necessary requisites to its mode of life at this 
period. 
In the neighborhood of Washoe Lake, Nevada, it is especially numerous, and here, 
about the middle of May, I found the birds paired, while some, at least, were building. 
They were first noticed on some small ponds near the shores of the lake, a locality 
quite typical of their choice at this season. Tlie muddy flats of such little inlets always 
prove more attractive to birds of their habits than larger bodies of water, inasmuch as 
the shallows permit them to wade about with perfect freedom; while food, which in 
summer consists very largely of the larvm of aquatic insects, is mare abundant in 
these tepid waters, as well as more readily obtained. I have sometimes thought that 
alkaline marshes and ponds were really preferred by these birds, attributing this 
choice to the possible fact of the greater abundance of the larvte alluded to in such. 
Be this as it may, the fact that water happens to be extremely brackish and alkaline 
is at least no drawback to the avocets. 
While the avocets are waders in the fullest meaning of the term, they are also adept 
swimmers when choice or necessity calls; but of this accomplishment, so far as my obser¬ 
vations go, they rarely when unmolested avail themselves. I remember on one occasion 
to have seen a wing-tipped avocet trust itself x>lockily to the waters of a broad lake 
and swim steadily out, though in the face of a gale that I should have thought a duck 
could scarcely have stemmed; since which time I have always entertained a high 
opinion of the natatorial powers of this species, although, as remarked before, they 
are usually held in abeyance. 
On the occasion of my first visit to the place mentioned above, I found the birds, 
with now and then a stilt, in considerable force, and so great was their solicitude at 
my intrusion and so vehement their outcries, that I took it for granted I was iu 
