BULLETIN No. 3, VOL. IV. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Nos. ᎪᎡᎢ, Titles. XXV.--Field-notes on Birds observed in Dakota and Mon tana along the Forty-ninth Parallel during the ART. XXVI.-Notes on a Collection of Fishes from the Rio Grande, Pages. 545-662 Jordan, M. D...... 663-668 ART. XXVII.-Preliminary Studies on the North American Pyralidæ. I. By A. R. Grote 669-706 ART. XXVIII.—Paleontological Papers No. 6: Descriptions of New 707-720 ART. ART. XXIX.—Paleontological Papers No. 7: On the Distribution ᎪᎡᎢ . XXXI. On the Mineralogy of Nevada. By W. J. Hoff 721-724 725-730 · man, M. D... . . 731-746 ART. XXV.-FIELD-NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN DAKOTA AND MONTANA ALONG THE FORTY-NINTH PARALLEL DURING THE SEASONS OF 1873 AND 1874.* BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A.; Late Surgeon and Naturalist U. S. Northern Boundary Commission. The following notes result from observations made in the field during my connection with the United States Northern Boundary CommissionArchibald Campbell, Esq., Commissioner, Major W. J. Twining, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., Chief Astronomer. The line surveyed by the Commission in 1873 and 1874 extended from the Red River of the North to the Rocky Mountains, a distance of 850 miles, along the northern border of the Territories of Dakota and Montana, in latitude 49° north. During the season of 1873, I took the field at Pembina, on the Red River, early in June, and in the course of the summer passed along the Line nearly to the Coteau de Missouri, returning from the Souris or Mouse River via Fort Stevenson and the Missouri to Bismarck. This season's operations were entirely on the parallel of 49°, and in the watershed of the Mouse and Red Rivers, my principal collecting-grounds being Pembina, Turtle Mountain, and the Mouse River. This region. of the northerly waters is sharply distinguished geographically and topographically, as well as zoologically, from the Missouri and Milk River Basin, which I entered the following year. In 1874, I began at Fort Buford, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, travelled northwesterly to 49°, which was reached at Frenchman's River, one of the numerous tributaries of Milk River, and thence along the parallel to the Rocky Mountains at Waterton or Chief Mountain Lake and other headwaters of the Saskatchewan; returning back on the Line to Three Buttes or Sweetgrass Hills, thence direct to Fort Benton, Montana, and thence by a boat voyage down the Missouri to Bismarck. In neither season was much collecting done except along the parallel itself; and the operations of each season were in a region sharply distinguished, as I have said, by its faunal peculiarities. From these two broad belts of country, corresponding at 490 nearly to the Territories of Dakota and Montana respectively, is to be set apart a third, that of the Rocky Mountains alone. I made an elaborate comparison of the faunal characters of these three [* For articles on other portions of the same writer's collection, see this Bulletin, this Vol., No. 1, pp. 259-292, and No. 2, pp. 481-518.-ED.] Bull. iv. No. 3- -1 545 regions with reference to anticipated publication in connection with the official report of the United States Boundary Commission; but the present is hardly the place to present these considerations in detail. I may, however, state that my results agree closely with those derived from the geological investigations made by Mr. George M. Dawson, my colleague of the British contingent of the Survey, whose valuable Report should be consulted in this connection, and that they are in striking accord with what would be the geographer's or the topographer's consideration. 1. Red River region, or watershed of the Red and Mouse Rivers. At 49° this extends westward along the northern border of Dakota, nearly to Montana,-to the point where the Coteau crosses the Line. The birdfauna of this region is decidedly Eastern in character,-much more so than that of the portion of the Missouri Basin which lies south of it and no further west. It is well distinguished, both by this Eastern facies and by the absence of the species which mark the Missouri region. The region consists of more or less (nearly in direct ratio as we pass westward) fertile prairie, treeless except along the streams, cut by the two principal river-valleys, the Red and the Mouse, crossed by the low range of the Pembina Mountains, and marked by the isolated butte known as Turtle Mountain. It is bounded to the west and south by the Coteau,-a comparatively very slight ridge, which nevertheless absolutely separates the two great watersheds. The Red River flows nearly due north; the. Mouse River makes a great horseshoe bend, at first directed toward the Missouri, which it almost reaches before it is "bluffed off", literally, and sent northward.* The bird-fauna of Pembina and the whole immediate Red River Valley is thoroughly Eastern. The only Western trace I observed was Spizella pallida and some Icterida, especially Scolecophagus cyanocephalus; though Sturnella neglecta and Xanthocephalus icterocephalus are both common prairie birds much further east, as Pediacetes columbianus also is. Characteristic mammals are Spermophilus 13-lineatus, S. franklini, Tamias quadrivittatus, Thomomys talpoides, and the rare Onychomys leucogaster. Out on the prairie, beyond the Pembina Mountains, this region is distinguished by the profusion of several very notable birds,-Anthus spraguii, Plectrophanes ornatus, Passerculus bairdi, and Eremophila leucolama, all breeding, none of them observed at Pembina. Here also was found Coturniculus lecontii. This treeless area is further marked by the absence of sundry birds common enough in the heavily-timbered Red River Valley, as Empidonaces, Vireones, Antrosto* Fort Pembina is situated on the Red River, latitude 49° nearly; longitude 97° 13, 42" west; altitude 790 feet above sea-level. The Pembina Mountains, well wooded, with a maximum elevation of about 1,700 feet, lie 35 miles west of the Red River, forming an escarpment which separates the low immediate valley of the Red River from the next higher prairie steppe, which reaches to the Coteau. Turtle Mountain is an isolated, heavily-wooded butte, 125 miles west of Pembina, with an elevation of about 2,000 feet above sea-level, lying directly on the parallel of 49°. Our camp, at its west base, was in longitude 100° 30′ 41.1", distant 149.25 miles from Pembina along the parallel. mus vociferus, Turdus pallasi, Geothlypis philadelphia, Goniaphea ludoviciana, Setophaga ruticilla, and many others. Spermophilus richardsoni begins in this region, and S. franklini and doubtless Onychomys end here. There are Badgers in plenty and a few Antelopes; there were no Buffalo in 1873, though the country was still scored with their trails, and skeletons were plenty from the Mouse River westward. This region is still more strongly marked by the absence of the Missouri specialties. 2. The Missouri region, or the great watershed of the Missouri and Milk Rivers. As soon as we cross the Coteau, the whole aspect of the country changes, and there is a marked difference in the fauna. We enter a much more sterile and broken region, absolutely treeless excepting along the larger water-courses, full of "bad lands", with much sagebrush, such country stretching, with scarcely any modification, to the base of the Rockies. In this latitude, the Milk River is the main artery, with many north-south affluents crossing 49°. The characteristic mammals are the Buffalo (first seen in 1874 in the vicinity of Frenchman's River), Antelope, Prairie and Sage Hares (LL. campestris and sylvaticus var. nuttalli), the Prairie "Gophers" (Spermophilus richardsoni, in extraordinary abundance), and Prairie "Dogs” (Cynomys ludovicianus), some of these being perfectly distinctive of the Missouri as compared with the Red River region. Putorius longicauda is the Ermine of this region. Kit Foxes (Vulpes velox) are common, but so they are along the Mouse River. The characteristic birds are Calamospiza bicolor, Tyrannus verticalis, Plectrophanes maccowni, Pica hudsonica, Speotyto hypogaa, Centrocercus urophasianus (diagnostic of the region, like the mammal Cynomys ludovicianus, or the reptiles Phrynosoma douglassi and Crotalus confluentus), and Eudromias montanus. Few, if any, distinctively Eastern birds extend across or even into this region. Plectrophanes ornatus goes to the mountains, but in diminished numbers; one specimen of Neocorys was taken near the mountains, but neither Passerculus bairdi nor Coturniculus lecontii was observed; Eremophila continues in full force. The Sweetgrass Hills, or Three Buttes, are the most considerable outliers of the Rocky Mountains, along the parallel of 49°, quite isolated on the prairie. I noticed no avian specialties here, but Mountain Sheep were comparatively abundant (as they were also along the bluffs of the Missouri River, above the mouth of the Yellowstone), and the Yellowhaired Porcupine, Erethizon epixanthus, was numerous. 3. Rocky Mountain region.-Rising gradually and, of course, imperceptibly, the Missouri region maintains its features to the very foot of the mountains, the headwaters of the Milk River being prairie streams, sluggish, warm, and muddy, with much alkaline detritus. The divide between this watershed and that of the Saskatchewan is too slight to be recognized as such by an inexperienced eye; on passing it, we strike the clear, cold, turbulent streams from the mountains, abounding in Salmonida, and soon enter the woods. This region is strongly marked, not only by "Western" species, in the geographer's sense, but |