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July, 1908 ANNOTATED LIST OF TIlE BIRDS OF MESA COUNTY, COLORADO 155 territory, is largely a rough, broken, arid country consisting of sandstone ledges and canyons, cedar and pinyon covered hills, adobe buttes, and sage-brush and greasewood covered flats, aud thru this greater part of the County practically no ornithological work has been done. This general type of topography is prevalent thruout the County, with the exception of the narrow eastern part, and the valleys of the Grand, Gunnison and Dolores Rivers. The eastern end of the County is a remarkably well-watered and timbered section, and includes a portion of the Grand Mesa which in many places attains an altitude of 10,500 feet. This mesa is rolling and smooth in outline aud is covered with a luxuriant growth of spruce, pine and balsam of several varieties, quaking- asp, scrub-oak and service berry, interspersed with a great variety of shrubs, flow- ering plants and grasses. Along the numerous creeks which drain this section mountain birch, cottonwood and willows grow in profusion. There is probably no ? j BALLANTINE AND ROCKWELL RANCH, HEAD OF PLATEAU VALLEY, MESA COUNTY, WHERE MUCH OF THE INFORMATION IN THIS LIST WAS COMPILED place in the Rocky Mountains which affords such a variety of food and cover, and to this fact, coupled with a remarkable abundance of insect life, may be attributed the abundance and variety of bird life occurring there. The cultivated areas of the County are closely confined to the courses of the streams, with the exception of Plateau Valley where the smaller streams flowing into Plateau Creek at right angles, afford abundant water supply for a territory ranging in width from 10 to 20 miles and about 35 nfiles loug. Nearly all of this land that is irrigable is under cultivation, and a vast amount of hay and grain is produced, while along the Grand and Gunnison river is located one of the greatest fruit raising districts in the west. Practically all of the observations contained in this list come from the eastern, northern and central portions of the County thus practically ignoring the great