VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

 southern and west-central California sometimes 

 knovyn as the chaparral belt. This belt lies wholly 

 within the Upper Sonoran zone, and shows asso- 

 ciational variations locally, but on the whole is re- 

 markably uniform. (See Pis. XX and XXVI.) 



Botanists tell us that the plants of this belt are 

 of relatively ancient origin and that they are quite 

 certainly indigenous. The same may be said of most 

 of the birds and some of the mammals which we 

 find restricted to the chaparral belt. Among these 

 are to be counted the huge grizzly bear of California, 

 now exterminated, and the nearly extinct condor. 

 Of the smaller mammals peculiar to the same belt 

 we may mention the diminutive brush rabbit, the 

 parasitic white-footed mouse, like the grizzly the 

 largest member of its numerous tribe found in North 

 America, and certain species of five-toed kangaroo 

 rats. Of the birds, we must call particular attention 

 to the California thrasher, of marvelous song exceed- 

 ing in clearness of tone and general execution that 

 of the mockingbird, the California brown towhee, 

 the California bush-tit, the rufous-crowned sparrow, 

 the Bell sparrow, the California jay, and the wren- 

 tit, the latter so different from any other bird of 

 America that it is placed in a genus and family all 

 of its own. (See PL XII.) 



If the visitor wishes to see for himself this 

 peculiarly Californian fauna and flora, let him 

 penetrate the chaparral slopes at some typical and 

 accessible point. It will, however, require more 

 than a few minutes; one should spend days in order 

 to adequately understand the environmental charac- 

 teristics as well as the inhabitants. The Mount 

 Lowe railroad north of Pasadena, passing through 

 a chaparral belt 2000 feet or more in vertical width, 

 the railroad to Yosemite winding for fifty miles or 

 more through the foothills of the western slope of 

 the Sierras, and the trail or railroad up Mount 

 Tamalpais, afford paths along which are many 

 points sure to serve well as bases of observation. 



The humid coast strip of British Columbia, 

 Washington, Oregon and northern California is 

 quite uniform in faunal character. The luxuriant 

 vegetation is of a northern or Boreal type, consist- 

 ing chiefly of coniferous forests and undergrowth 

 of various northern plant types. With the animals, 

 too, we find a preponderance of northern types, 

 though at the south, from the vicinity of Humboldt 

 Bay to the extreme southern part of the coast belt 

 proper, in Monterey County, California, one finds an 

 admixture with southern elements. Birds and mam- 

 mals in the northern coast belt are, relatively to 



109 



