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 Jan., 1910 SOME CENTRAL COLORADO BIRD NOTES 27 The reason I made such a long stop at this place was that I was endeavoring to secure specimens of the Mountain Harvest Mouse, 2{'eft}rodontomys monlanus, which has the interesting history of having for many years been known only from a single specimen taken by a Pacific Railroad Surveying expedition in 1853 some- where in the San Luis Valley, and to the northward of this place. However, Cary secured a series here two years ago, and I did my best to get more, but, though I covered the country with traps, and caught all kinds of'mice except those most wanted, I failed to secure a single specimen. Where the land was not in hay, the soil was a light sand, and with the same old greasewood and rabbit brush. There were no trees close by, but, along Sand Creek, three miles to the northward, were a number of cottonwoods. Each of us took a walk over there, but found comparatively few birds. Owing to this lack of trees, bird life, so far as species went, was rather limited around this camp, and our daily lists were repetitions of the same old names until we began to get decidedly tired of them, and gladly welcomed an occasional addition. Savannah Sparrows and Meadow Larks were abundant in the meadows, Sage Thrashers and Brewer's Sparrows among the brush away from them, and various other birds here and there in the localities they most favored. Finally I tired of trying to catch those Harvest Mice, and we left the morning of July 5, and began by taking a wrong road almost at the start, which led us sev- eral miles out of our way. However I do not specially regret this as we saw one or two interesting things we would otherwise have missed, and it made me familiar with the location of the "Durkee Ranch", which will be referred to later. We had a long hard pull that morning over a sandy road, on which the mules hardly made over a mile an hour. The road in the afternoon was better, and we made nearly to'Mosca Creek before earnping. To the northwest of this place are the sandhills or dunes which are locally rather noted, a low range of them, nothing but sand, and constantly changing form with the wind. The next morning our trouble began. The lady mule of the team behaved in a very unladylike manner, ate her oats too greedily, and choked herself. However she apparently recovered, and we hitched up and started. Going up a little hill she got sick and gave out entirely, and we had to unhitch and let the wagon set right there, halfway up the hill. There was a very sick mule in camp, and we were afraid she would die. Of course we im- proved the time while waiting for her to do so, by collecting. Perhaps that was the reason she did not die, as we did not show her the respect proper at such a sad time, and so went on living from pure cussedhess. This was at the mouth of the gulch up which the road to Mosea Pass went. This is the pass over which the travel formerly went, but the road having been washed out and impassable for two years, we were heading for Madenos Pass a few miles farther north. The next day finding the mule still alive, but unable to work, I started out afoot for a ranch on Madenos Creek to see if I could get a team to help me out. It was six miles over a very sandy road,. and we learned that 1500 pounds was con- sidered a load for a four horse team, and judging from our experience it is. The following morning I took a pair of horses back to camp with me, and we started out. We hitched the well mule with one of the horses, and by pulling from the saddlehorn with the other horse we managed to make a-mile an hour, and it was not up hill either; though there were little ups and downs, much of the road was quite level. In spite of the sandy soil there was a fine, somewhat scattering growth of yellow pine along the road, and many Lewis's Woodpeckers were seen among them. We made camp in Madenos Cation, about a mile above Herard postoffice, on the