20 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
in the Reports of Survey for a Railroad to the Pacific: Route Near the Thirty-fifth 
Parallel, Explored by Lieut. A. W. Whipple, Topographical Engineer, in 1853 and 
1854—Report on the Zoology of the Expedition (IV, Part VI, pp. 1-17, 1856) and 
Report on the Birds Collected on the Route (X, Part VI, No. 3, pp. 19-35, 1S59). 
Notes on some of the specimens had been previously published by S. F. Baird as: 
Descriptions of New Birds Collected between Albuquerque, N. M., and San Frar- 
cisco, California, during the Winter of 1853-54, by Dr. C. B. R. Kennedy and H. B. 
Mollhausen, naturalists attached to the survey of the Pacific R. R. route under 
Lt. A. W. Whipple (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, pp. 118-120, 1S54). 
1854. Adolphus L. Heermann (1818P—1865). 
Most of Dr. Heermann’s ornithological work was done in California, where he 
spent nearly three years (1849-1852), collecting some twelve hundred birds, which 
he described on his return to Philadelphia. Upon the organization of^the Pacific 
Railroad survey parties (1853) he went back to California by way of the Isthmus, 
and served as surgeon and naturalist to Lieutenant Williamson’s party, in its survey 
of the 32d and 35th parallels in southern California. 
His work in New Mexico followed (1854), when he was on the short exploration 
by Lieut. J. G. Parke, assistant to Lieutenant Williamson, near the 32d parallel from 
San Diego through Northern Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico, terminating at San 
Antonio, Texas. The party, with a military escort of twenty-eight men, left San 
Diego, January 24, 1854, taking the southern route across the Coast Range and the 
Colorado desert to Fort Yuma at the junction of the Colorado and Gila; thence 
proceeding up the Gila to the Pima and Maricopa villages, February 13, and to 
lucson, February 20, crossing into New Mexico in Hidalgo County about March 6. 
Following the emigrant road to Mesilla by way of the Rio Mimbres^ they reached the 
neighborhood of Fort Webster, March 8; Cooke’s Spring, March 10; Rio Grande near 
32 22 , the boundary between the United States and Mexico, March 12; Mesilla 
Valley, near Dona Ana, and in sight of Fort Fillmore, March 13. Here, on March 
17, wanting to examine a different local route for the railroad, Lieutenant Parke 
turned southwest to the gap between the Picacho and the Sierra Florida, returning 
to the Rio Grande and the post ’ [Fort Fillmore], where the season’s work ended, 
March 21; those of the party remaining with Lieutenant Parke, including Dr. Heer- 
rnan, proceeding down the Rio Grande to El Paso and San Antonio, Texas (Pacific 
Railroad reports, Vol. II, Report of Lieutenant Parke, pp. 2-15). 
Heermann’s work in New Mexico was, therefore, confined to the southern and 
largely southwestern part of the State, in what are now the southwestern tier of 
counties—Hidalgo, Luna, and Dona Ana. His New Mexico notes were published 
in the Reports of a Survey for a Railroad to the Pacific,Route near the Thirty-second 
Parallel (Vol. X, Zoological Report, Part III, No. 1 , pp. 9-22, pis. 3, 1859; No. 2, 
pp. 29-80, pis. 7). The itinerary of the trip is given in Vol. II, Report of Lieutenant 
I arke, pp. 2-15. (See Witmer Stone, Cassinia, Vol. XI, pp. 1-6, 1907). 
1854. John Pope (1822-1892). 
Captain Pope and a party of about 75 men started from Dona Ana on February 
12, 1854 and journeyed slowly eastward just north of the southern boundary of New 
Mexico. They left the Hueco Mountains February 22, the Cornudas Mountains 
February 25, and immediately crossed into Texas, passing around the south end of 
the Guadalupe Mountains February 28; then entering the valley of Delaware Creek, 
they followed it to its junction with the Pecos in New Mexico, arriving there March 8 
and remaining until March 19, when they went down the Pecos, crossing into Texas 
the samp ritiv 
