^"i^'o^^l Brooks, Birds of the Cariboo District, B. C. 277 



NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF THE CARIBOO DISTRICT, 

 BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



BY ALLAN BROOKS. 



Plate X. 



Desiring to study the fauna of the northern interior of British 

 Columbia, I spent fifteen months, from June, 1900, to October, 

 1901, in the Cariboo district, a large portion of the time being 

 devoted entirely to collecting. The first eleven months were 

 spent in the heavily timbered country in the northern portion of 

 the district, Quesnelle Mouth, Willow River, and the mountains 

 southeast of Barkerville. From May, 1901, till the following 

 October I made my headquarters at the 158-Mile House, in the 

 southwestern corner of the district, just north of the 5 2d parallel. 

 Excursions were made from this point to the Chilcotin plateau, 

 Lac la Hache and Horsefly River. 



The country around Quesnelle, on both banks of the Eraser, 

 and north to Fort George, is entirely covered with forest, mostly 

 coniferous, — spruce, balsam, Murray pine and Douglas fir, with 

 a good deal of birch and poplar. The altitude of the Fraser at 

 Quesnelle is 1600 feet. 



The mountains in this region are mostly low, level plateaus, but 

 towards Barkerville they merge into the Cariboo Range, rugged and 

 snow-capped, with timber line at about 5500 feet. 



Towards the southern portion of this range the climate becomes 

 more humid and the valleys, such as the upper Horsefly, possess a 

 forest growth very similar to that of the coast region, — hemlock, 

 cedar, Douglas fir, yew, etc., with a heavy growth of underbrush, 

 red dogwood, devil's club, etc. 



The southwestern corner of the Cariboo district, like the 

 Lilloet district to the southwest, is diversified with a good deal of 

 open and partially timbered country; the i5S-Mile House is 

 situated on a plateau of about 3000 feet altitude (Carpenter's 

 Mountain). Here there is a good deal of natural prairie, with 

 numerous lakes and ponds, and scattered groves of timber and 

 brush, the fauna and flora having many of the characteristics of 

 the plains to the east of the Rockies. 



