306 Widmann, Birds of Estes Park, Colorado. LJuly 



it. Up to 9000 feet the yellow pine (Pinus scopulorum) makes 

 fine trees, as a grove of them near Long's Peak Inn demonstrates. 

 From 8000 feet up the lodgepole pine (Pinus murrayana) makes 

 its appearance and begins to make pure, almost impenetrable, 

 stands. The Douglas spruce (Pscudotsuga mucronata), which in the 

 lower valleys is chiefly found with the blue spruce (Picea parryana) 

 in the creek bottoms, becomes more common at 8000 feet and ex- 

 tends with the lodgepole to 10,000 feet. Engelmann's spruce (Picea 

 engelmanni) and balsam fir (Abies lasiocarpa) occur along streams 

 from 8000 feet up, but their real home is above 10,000 feet to tim- 

 berline. White or limber pine (Apinus flcxilis) is found locally 

 from 8000 feet up, but is more abundant in the Engelmann spruce 

 and balsam fir zone. Wherever we go, we soon meet with large 

 tracts of very scant tree growth covered with the prostrate remains 

 of trees destroyed by forest fires. It is highly probable that most 

 of these fires were caused by lightning, as the almost daily occurring 

 storms are often accompanied by severe discharges cf electricity, 

 which in drouths may easily set trees on fire. Not far from the 

 Elkhorn Lodge we saw a pine of three feet diameter split in two in 

 the middle for a distance of twenty feet to the ground. Decidu- 

 ous trees are greatly in the minority and of small size except the 

 aspen, which makes sometimes pure stands and grows to over a 

 foot in diameter. Willows and aspens with some alder, birch and 

 wild cherry make the bulk of the thickets along the streams from 

 7500 feet up, while at lower elevations the narrow-leafed cotton- 

 wood is added, but there are no oaks, elms, sycamores or any others 

 of the many kinds of trees which fringe the water courses in the 

 Eastern States. Mountain maples (Acer glabrum) make thick 

 bushes at Fork's, where the hillsides, apparently too dry for coni- 

 fers, are covered with shrubs and low vegetation. Although at 

 first not inviting looking, these stony hillsides were found to harbor 

 many more birds than one would expect, being attracted by the 

 many eatable berries and seeds of the plants growing there and 

 ripening in July. 



June is the month when the wonderfully rich flora of these 

 mountains is in its greatest glory. The earliest flowers of the year 

 are then still in evidence, among them the modest pasque flower 

 (Pulsatilla hirsutissima) and the conspicuous flowering raspberry 



