CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 247 



links between those of the two ranges are still wanting 

 where the wide valley separates them, and not likely to be 

 found. At the same time we observe that the small Triod- 

 opsis loricata is found on both California ranges of mountains 

 identical in form, but in the Sierras from 2,000 to 4,000 

 feet altitude, on the coast only below 1,000 feet. I have 

 also been informed lately that the Oregonian Aplodon Colum- 

 bianus and "Mtcrocyclis'" Vancouverensis have been found at 

 the Big Trees of Calaveras County, 4,700 feet altitude, the 

 first time in the Sierras, if really of these species. At its 

 southern end only, we find H. Trasldi passing around 

 the low mountain range there existing and dividing into two 

 varieties — Diabloensis for the coast range, and Carpenteri 

 in the Sierras — which, however, only extends north to lati- 

 tude 38 ; , where it is much dwarfed. Thence north it is re- 

 placed by H. Mormonum, a form closely connected with H. 

 fidells, the Oregon type of the banded group, 



In 1854, I noticed large numbers of E Townsend'wna in- 

 habiting the deserted Indian village sites near the coast, 

 and quite common even where those rich deposits of shells 

 and other refuse are cultivated. In California, it is not un- 

 common to find 11. Californiensis in fields near thickets, 

 among cabbages, potatoes, and other vegetables, also in 

 young orchards with very little shade, so that as planted 

 trees increase in size and numbers, their needed shelter will 

 become abundant. The neighborhood of city reservoirs, 

 parks and cemeteries are also favorable places, where I have 

 found fine ones for over twenty years past. 



In the middle and northern counties of California, the 

 effects of the Spanish burnings and cattle grazing is less 

 marked, though the Americans have destroyed vast tracts of 

 sheltering forests, and thus exterminated them in some 

 places, while they are favored in other places by new plan- 

 tations, and by more care to prevent fires. The diffusion of 

 the eggs and young of most of them is also promoted, no 

 doubt bv their adhesion to the feet of birds, which scratch 



