without stretching far enough northward to know the severity of winter, or far enough southward to feel the enervating influence of a tropical sun.

It could supply all its own wants. Its pastoral regions could easily furnish wool, hides and food for twenty times its present population. Its rivers and bays swarm with the choicest of fish, salmon being so abundant that it can hardly be accounted a luxury. The vine-bearing capacity of the one county of Sonoma exceeds that of all the wine-growing regions of Europe. Wheat has been harvested at the rate of ninety bushels to the acre, and fifty or sixty bushels are but an ordinary crop, twenty being regarded as a good yield in the Genesee district of New York. The fruits are unsurpassed in quality and in profusion, and are subject to none of the blights, parasitic insects and fungi, that infest our orchards, so that one need not fear to eat an apple in the dark. Strawberries may be bought in the San Francisco market every month in the year. It is not easy to name any fruit which will not ripen within the limits of the State. At Sonoma, on the grounds of General Vallejo, the old Spanish commandant of California, I saw ripe or ripening, along with all the common fruits of the temperate zone, oranges, lemons, bananas, olives, figs and almonds. I have eaten olives in Italy, but never any so good as those from the General's own trees on which I lunched at his table. In the southern part of the State, cotton is rapidly becoming a staple, and coffee, equal to the best St. Domingo, is already raised. The cultivation of tea has been commenced with the promise of complete success, and there is no reason why the spices of the East Indies should not become naturalized there.

There is also in the interior a supply of lumber of all kinds which it would take many centuries to exhaust, though as yet, for lack of available avenues for transportation, lumber for the cities on the coast is imported from Oregon. If every schooner, sloop and sail-boat in the world were a

ship of three thousand tons, I saw, on a single day's ride, enough pine trees from one to two hundred feet high, straight as an arrow, to furnish masts for all the vessels in the world, without perceptibly thinning the primeval forest. The climate is unequalled in salubrity. In San Francisco a sea-breeze sets in from the ocean at three or four o'clock on a summer afternoon, rendering the air rather cooler than suits one not acclimated; but this is not experienced in the winter, and the average temperature of the winter is rather higher than that of the summer. Only a few miles from the coast the force of the ocean-breeze is spent. There the summer days are very hot, but the air is so pure that the thermometer of one's own consciousness is much below Fahrenheit's, and I found it as easy to take a long and brisk walk at the temperature of a hundred degrees, as it would be in New England at seventy-five. The night air is inexpressibly sweet and mild, so that one would not care whether he lodged within doors or under the star-gemmed roof. It is no uncommon thing to have the windows of lodging apartments taken out, and laid aside as useless, from the early spring till the autumn. The atmosphere, even in midsummer, is so entirely free from malaria, that lamb or veal hung up in the open air will dry before it becomes tainted; and outside of farmhouses and hotels we often see, suspended on trees, locked safes covered with wire-gauze, in which fresh meat may be preserved sound and sweet for several weeks.

For seven or eight months in the year rain never falls. The grass, indeed, looks brown; but the trees, which strike their roots down into soil still moist, retain their verdure, and for the various crops of grain and vegetables artificial irrigation is extensively employed, windmills for raising water being used, not only on farms, but in orchards, and often in private gardens. The whole country is diversified by gentle elevations-foot-hills, as they are called — which generally furnish perennial fountains that are led among the valleys, unfailing sources of fertility and wealth. The cli

mate facilitates the labor of harvest. The wheat and grain are threshed on their native field, bagged, and piled up against the fences till a convenient time for carrying them to market; and I often saw such huge piles of bagged wheat and oats, that it required some stretch of fancy to imagine that it could all have grown in a single year within the area of the field.

NOTES ON SOME BIRDS IN THE MUSEUM OF
VASSAR COLLEGE.

BY PROFESSOR JAMES ORTON.

THE Ornithological Cabinet in the Vassar Museum, contains nearly twelve hundred distinct species, of which seven hundred are North American, and the remainder South American. Among them are several type specimens and others of historical interest as the originals of Audubon's celebrated drawings.

Falco islandicus Gm. This fine specimen formerly belonged to Audubon, to whom it was presented by Sir John Cheperstal, and is the original of the figure in "Birds of America."

Accipiter nigroplumbeus Lawr. TYPE. This new hawk was obtained by the writer in the Valley of Quito, where it is very rare.

Strix punctatissima Gray. Indigenous to the Galapagos, but now rather abundant in the Valley of Quito near the cotton-mills of Chillo, where it is called "Factory Owl." It lays nearly spherical eggs, in a rude nest made of a small quantity of rubbish scraped together and lined with a few feathers, and generally built in the gable ends of houses or under the eaves.

Trogon Mexicanus Sw. The late Mr. Giraud informed us that this specimen was shot in Texas. The Trogon fam

ily is well represented in the East Indies; but it is more fully developed in the New World where there are about twenty-five species. In splendor of plumage they are surpassed only by the Hummers; in stupidity, by the Jacamars. Their only utterance sounds like Te vio! (I see thee). They are zygodactylous, but unlike the woodpeckers and parrots. the third or longest toe being the inward of the two forward toes instead of the outward.

Andigena laminirostris Gould. This rare bird represents a remarkable group of Toucans characterized by the dense villose clothing of the under surface. This species is found at Nanegal on the west slope of the Andes; not in the neighborhood of Quito, as stated by Mr. Gould. The Toucans, of which thirty-five species occur at the equator, are confined to tropical America. They live in dense forests in small companies. Their flight is laborious but not jerky. On the ground they hop like a robin. They have a shrill though variable cry, which sometimes has a vague resemblance to tocáno, and again to pia-po-o-co. The imaginative natives call them Preachers, because they seem to make the sign of the cross by wagging the head up, then to the left, next to the right, and finally down, saying at each movement Dios tode (God gave it you). The sexes are exactly alike. The most common species on the Upper Amazon are Cuvieri, Humboldtii and pleuricinctus.

Tetragonops ramphastinus Jard. This singular Barbet is called by the natives venenero or deer-hunter, because it whistles with ventriloqual powers. None of the Capitonida sing. The phlegmatic Buccos or "pig-birds," as the Indians call them, seem to have their head-quarters in Eastern Peru. The Tetragonops is a connecting link between the Barbets and Toucans.

Lesbia Ortoni Lawr. TYPE. This remarkably fine species is the latest addition to the Trochilidæ. It was discovered in the Valley of Quito at the foot of the isolated mountain Ilalo, and is the only specimen ever found. The

superstitious Indians who inhabit Ilalo are very exclusive, forbidding the approach of any white man to their mountain; and for this reason, probably, this Hummer has never before been seen. The collection contains one hundred and twentysix species of Trochilidæ.

Chatura rutila Vieill. This elegant little Swift or "Nocturnal Swallow" was obtained in the Quito Valley, where it is very rare. Vieillot's type was found in Trinidad; Lafresnaye's specimens were from New Grenada; and Salvin procured them in Guatemala, where Sclater says it properly belongs. Its nest is not made of mud and sticks like that of its northern representative, our chimney swallow, but chiefly of moss, very compact and shallow, and located in dark culverts about two feet above the water; never on houses or trees.

Brachygalba lugubris Sw. RE-DISCOVERED TYPE. Since this Jacamar was first described in 1838, not a single specimen has come under the notice of any naturalist; and in 1853, Mr. Sclater declared that Swainson's bird remained to be re-discovered. This specimen was shot by Mr. Gilbert at Valencia in 1867, and has been recognized by the distinguished ornithologist, George N. Lawrence, Esq., as the lost lugubris. The only discrepancy from Swainson's description is the possession of four toes instead of three; but the hind toe is quite small. It is distinct from B. inornata. Jacamars stand next to the Trogons and Hummers in the beauty of their golden-bronze, and steel-colored plumage. They are peculiar to tropical America, and Guiana is their true home. None have been seen on the west slope of the Andes.

· Todirostrum gracilipes Scl. The type in the British Museum came from Bogota; but this specimen was obtained by Hauxwell on the Upper Amazon. From the same locality we have the Empidomus varius.

Myiarchus Lawrencii Gir., Basileuterus Belli Gir., B. Brasieri Gir., Dendroica olivacea Gir., and Cardellina rubrifrons Gir. The types of these species formerly belonged