458 Captaiu H. Lynes — Bird-notes 



collections of crags or boulders, one of the largest 

 of wliicli — the Peiiones de San Francisco — at 8500 ft. 

 formed the furthest point of our explorations. 



Keplace the short esparto grass by coarse bents, and the 

 occasional starveling growth of flattened juniper bushes by 

 bog-myrtle, and these upland stretches might almost be 

 mistaken for parts of the higher moorlands of North Wales. 



For brevity of reference, these three zones will hereafter 

 be termed the lower, middle, and upper zones respectively. 



The periods of our visit to the two sierras were as 

 follows : — 



San Cristobal.— 2Ut to 26th March and 22nd to 26th 

 April. 



Sierra Nevada. — 28th April to 3rd May, during which 

 time snow still covered north-facing slopes from 

 seven, and south-facing slopes from eight thousand 

 feet upwards, while down to six thousand feet vege- 

 tation and soil alike shewed unmistakable evidences 

 of their recent release from winter's mantle. 



It is perhaps needless to say that in such Hying visits 

 much must have escaped our notice, or that observations 

 made in one small corner of a great expanse of mountain- 

 ranges like the Sierra Nevada do not necessarily hold good 

 all over its area; on the contrary, it was very evident to us 

 that there is stili much to be learnt in both regions con- 

 cerning their birds. 



Speaking in general terms, each sierra, though in the 

 main sunilar, seemed to have much ornithological character 

 of its own. 



The Sierra Nevada, in the wild expanses of its upper zone, 

 maintained as breeding species the Alpine Accentor, and 

 apparently also the Skylark, Common Wheatear and others 

 that require for the purposes of reproduction a more temperate 

 climate than San Cristobal's lesser altitude cati offer, but 

 apart from this the latter certainly gave us the impression of 

 being far the richer in bird-life ; most of what was to be seen 

 in a long day's exploration in our part of the Sierra Nevada 



