358 ORNITHOLOGY. 



meadows. The birds observed in the valley adjacent to this camp were 

 the following species: In tlie sage-brusli, Oreoscoptes montamis, Chondestes 

 grammaca, Spizella breweri, AmpJiispiza nevadcnsis, Antrostomus nuttalli, 

 ChordeUes lienryi, and Zencedura carolinensis ; on the meadows, Passercidus 

 olaudinus, Cotumiadits perjmUidus, and Grus canadensis ; in the brier 

 thickets, Geothhjpis trichas ; and in the marshes, Telmatodytes paludicola, 

 Xanthocepliahis icferocfphalits, Fulica aniericana, Anas boschas, and Sterna 

 forstcri. The mountains above this camp are exceedingly complicated in 

 their varied characteristics and in the distribution of their bird-life. The 

 main canons, at right-angles with the trend of the range, become contracted 

 in their lower portion, where their sides consist of vertical limestone cliffs, 

 many of which are 200 to 300 feet in height ; similar cliifs also crop out, in 

 places, near the summit of the range, standing singly, like immense walls, 

 from each side of which the slopes lead down to the bottom of the canons. 

 The altitude of the valley at the base of the mountains is about 6,000 feet 

 above sea-level, while the summits of the range are from 9,000 to upwards 

 of 12,000 feet high. The canons here support nearly all the shrubbery 

 and herbaceous vegetation, while only the spurs and higher slopes are 

 wooded. Tlie lower portion of the streams within the canon is followed 

 by the usual shrubbery of canon streams, which here consisted chiefly of 

 choke-cherry, snow-berry {Symphoricarpus), and service-berry {Antclanchier 

 canadensis) bvishes, the remainder of the canon, where not occupied by 

 rocks, being covered with the ordinary sage-brush plants. About half way 

 to the summit, however, the cliffs cease, the canon sides gradually become 

 less abrupt and wider apart, and at this elevation the gently-inclined slopes 

 are overspread with a luxuriant meadow in which various plants with 

 showy flowers abound. The sage-brush still predominates, however, until 

 the lower edge of the side-slopes of the "saddles" between the peaks of the 

 range are reached, when the vegetation is transformed into a garden, as it 

 were, so numerous and showy are the flowers, among which the scarlet 

 Castilleias and Gilias, and blue Pentstemons and Delphineums are most 

 conspicuous, from the circumstance that they give the prevailing hues to 

 the meadows. These flowery slopes reach up to the fields of snow, which 

 are foinid in all shaded spots, and, at a proper elevation, even in places 



