41 



294 Warren, Birds of the Elk Mountain Region, Colo. \i\i\y 



Hudsonian zones is quite limited, comprising Lodge-pole Pine, 

 Douglas's Fir, Engelmann's Spruce, Balsam, Aspen, and a few 

 species of Willows. Wild flowers of many species grow in pro- 

 fusion, making of the open parts of the mountainsides, even above 

 timberline, veritable flower gardens. Engelmann's Spruce is the 

 tree which reaches the highest limit, and the stunted trees at 

 timberline are this species. My notes bearing on the breeding 

 ranges of the various species of birds are rather meagre, but such 

 as they are go to show that most of the land birds occupy parts at 

 least of both the Hudsonian and Canadian when nesting. How- 

 ever, I have never seen the Mourning Dove, Magpie, Long-crested 

 Jay, Western Tanager and Yellow Warbler nesting above the 

 Canadian and most of these are restricted to the lower part of that 

 zone. The Rocky Mountain Jay, and presumably the Clarke's 

 Nutcracker, breed only in the Hudsonian, while the Ptarmigan, 

 Brown-capped Rosy Finch and Pipit breed in the Arctic-Alpine. 



While a great portion of the years from the spring of 1882 until 

 the autumn of 1902 were spent in the region, sometimes the summer 

 only, and sometimes the entire year, I did but little ornithological 

 work during most of that period, and kept no notes until the last 

 four years of that time, and then not as systematically as might 

 have been desirable. But little bird collecting was done, mam- 

 mals and photography occupying most of the time I could give 

 from other pursuits to such work. Since 1902 I have made 

 four visits to the region, the last in June, 1915, when I spent 

 practically the whole of that month there, devoting most of my 

 time to bird study, with the result of filling in many gaps in my 

 data, and yet leaving much to be learned. The broken character 

 of the country renders it difficult to make anything like a thorough, 

 detailed study of its bird life, unless one is able to devote practically 

 his whole time for several seasons to the work. These notes make 

 no pretense of being complete; I have worked them up as best I 

 could, knowing it to be somewhat unlikely that I would do much 

 more there myself and thinking they would at least serve as a 

 basis for future work on the part of others. 



The area covered may be roughly described as that portion of 

 Gunnison County north of a line 8 miles south of Crested Butte, 

 between East Brush and Cement Creeks on the east, and Muddy 



