Page:Condor7(1).djvu/10

 Jan., 9o5 I THE CONDOR 9 had, therefore, to the second supposition which is that the birds learned this course gradually by an extension of a shorter course. It is known that at one time the Gulf of Mexico extended north approximately to what is now the mouth of the Ohio River. It is a fair presumption that at this time migrants passed by land from Mexico through what is now Texas to their summer homes in the Mississippi Valley. This course would be but little longer than the direct course across the Gulf. As time passed and the land began to ap- pear to the south of the mouth of the Ohio, the bird's route would turn more and more to the east in northern Texas, while at the same time it is probable that the climatic conditions in southern Texas and northwestern Mexico became less favor- able to the support of a large population of forest loving birds. These two causes together probably induced the birds at first to follow close along the Texas coast to shorten the distance and obtain food; later to make short flights over the water, near to the shore, and still later to lengthen these flights, carrying the path of the flight continually to the eastward, until finally they adopted their present route across the full width of the Gulf of Mexico. It is believed by some that many of the birds of the eastern United States reached their present breeding grounds by way of a former extension of Honduras toward Cuba, and thence across that island to the Bahamas and Florida. The argu- ment is just the same whether it is supposed the route began in Texas and moved eastward or commenced in Cuba and moved westward. In either case the migra- tion route now used does not indicate the way by which the species "originally immigrated into its present breeding home." Washington, D.C. Old Fort Tejon BY JOSEPH GRINNELL CARCELY any locality in California could be named which would fail to afford at least a modicum of interest to the nature student. Yet Old Fort Tejon possesses an added attraction due to its position in the early history of California and its zoology, which cannot fail to continually draw more explorers in its direction in the future. Fort Teion lies in a well watered valley which leads down from Tejon Pass towards the San Joaquin Valley. This Pass is the lowest one of the southern Sierras, 42oo feet, and was the one selected by the fortyminers who entered Cali- fornia by the way of the Mojave Desert.. The Pass itself is in the extreme north- western corner of Los Angeles county, but Fort Tejon, five miles north, is beyond the boundry, in Kern county, and about a thousand feet lower. The old immigrant trail still shows in places, but is now for the most part replaced by the well graded State road which leads up from Antelope Valley (the extreme westward arm of the Mojave Desert) over Tejon Pass, down the valley and past Castac Lake (now dry) and Fort Tejon, and on down the steep and narrow Cafiada de las Uvas out into the San Joaquin Valley by the way of Rose's Station to Bakersfield. They tell us that the military post was established at this point about x85o in order to furnish protection to the immigrants through the mountains which were at that time infested with bands of Mexican bandits and renegade Indians. The ruins of the Fort buildings cover considerable ground, and point to the great ira-