154 BULLETIN OF THE 



From the great elevation of the Park, its fauna has a decidedly 

 northern aspect, and may be regarded as at least subalpine, and as 

 representative of the Canadian fauna of the Eastern Province of the 

 continent. The nights are cool even in midsummer, the average sun- 

 rise temperature for the summer months being probably little, if any 

 above 40° F. The midsummer showers are generally accompanied 

 with hail and a great reduction of the temperature. The maximum 

 temperature frequently reaches 80° in the shade, the heat at midday 

 being usually quite oppressive. July 14th may perhaps be taken as 

 an average day, when the temperature at sunrise was 38° ; at 2 r. jr. 

 78° in the shade; and at sunset, G0°. Although most of the birds are of 

 a northern type, one or two species, as, fur example, Sturnella ludovici- 

 ana and Zencedura carolinensis, are more or less frequent that barely 

 reach the Canadian fauna in the Atlantic States. 



In this connection a word or two may be added in respect to the 

 country lying between South Park and the Plains. At Denver 

 (altitude 5,100 feet) the avian fauna is analogous to the Carolinian 

 of the Eastern Province, and extends even into the valleys among the 

 foot-hills. From the base of the mountains up to about 7,500 feet 

 the fauna is more analogous to the Alleghanian, or to that of Southern 

 New England. Thence upward to about 10,500 feet is a zone more 

 resembling the Canadian fauna of the East, or that of Northern New 

 England. From this point upward to the timber-line in the Snowy 

 Range the fauna is more nearly representative of the Hudsonian, or 

 that of the shores of Hudson's Bay and the valley of the McKenzie 

 River. Above this, in the Snowy Range, is a region dotted with snow- 

 fields, where are found several essentially arctic forms. 



Following up Turkey Creek, by the stage-road leading from Denver 

 to South Park, we find along this stream the most varied fauna and 

 flora of the middle portion of the Rocky Mountains. Here the rain- 

 fall is evidently the greatest, and the vegetation accordingly the most 

 luxuriant. Pines and spruces thickly clothe the slope of the moun- 

 tains ; the streams are densely enclosed with willows, alders, cotton- 

 woods, and other deciduous trees and shrubs, and rosaceous and ranun- 

 culaceous plants predominate, giving a flora of a cold-temperate or sub- 

 alpine type not met with elsewhere between the Rocky Mountains and 

 the Appalachians, and as different from that of the Plains as if it grew 

 on another continent. A profusion of flowers of bright tints meet the 



