vou. x1.| NOTES ON ZONAL DISTRIBUTION. 77 
forms suitable winter quarters for some mountain or northern 
species, such as Alpine Pipit, Bullfinch, Yellowhammer, 
Mistle-Thrush, Song-Thrush, Meadow-Pipit, Redwing, 
Brambling. 
Tue Montane Zone consists chiefly of beech forest and 
grass. So far as I know, no coniferous woods occur in this 
zone. Wheat is grown in some of the plateau valleys up to 
1,300 m., ripening here about the middle of August. The 
lower limit of this zone appears to represent approximately 
the climate of the south of England, though the late summer 
is certainly finer and warmer and the winter snowfall rather 
heavier: this last no doubt accounts for the absence of 
Robins and the Thrushes in winter. 
A number of species seem to be confined to the montane 
in the breeding-season : Song-Thrush, Redstart, Wood-Wren, 
Hedge-Sparrow, Coal-Tit, Tree-Creeper (C. familiaris), 
Collared Flycatcher, Bullfinch, Yellowhammer ; while Mistle- 
Thrush, Bonelli’s Warbler and Tree-Pipit reach only a little 
below it. It may thus be said to be the best characterized 
ornithologically of the three woodland zones. 
I have not yet been able to make any observations on 
migration at this height. 
THE SUBALPINE ZONE consists almost entirely of grassland, 
more or less rocky except on some shoulders ; but scrub of 
Juniperus nana and Arctostaphyllos wva-ursi occurs in places, 
giving shelter to the ubiquitous Wren. The characteristic 
species is the Alpine Pipit, which does, however, reach down 
to some of the montane grassland. The Chough (on the 
cliffs) also probably belongs to it; the only other species 
we met with were Wheatear, Black Redstart and Linnet. 
Tur ALPINE ZONE is represented only on afew of the highest 
peaks, where mountain-top detritus and rock exposures 
bear a purely alpine vegetation: here occur Alpine Accentor 
and Snowfinch, in company with Wheatear and Black 
Redstart ; Alpine Pipits may also be heard singing, but their 
breeding-grounds are the neighbouring grassy slopes on which 
the vegetation is subalpine. 
The Black Redstart is unique: for you may hear its song 
from the cliffs above as you go out of Terracina along the 
Appian Way cut by the Romans through the rocks beside 
the Tyrrhenian Sea, where green peas and carnations are 
in flower in January and the reeds by the spring are per- 
petually green ; and again you may hear it as you stand on 
the wind-swept top of Monte Viglio, where a few diminutive 
tufts of Androsace and Thlaspi rotundifolium share the loose 
stones with lichens 
