17 KO) Dawson, Birds of Okanogan Co., Wash. aval 
but whose faunal character is strictly determined by the enclosing 
mountains. Thus, Meadowlarks, in a semi-arid district of 
scattering pines in the center of the county, reach an elevation 
of 3500 feet, whereas they are not to be found in the Stehekin 
Valley which opens westward from the head of Lake Chelan at 
an altitude of only 970 feet. Again Dendroica auduboni and 
Sitta canadensis, which are strictly subalpine forms, range down 
to the water’s edge at Graham MHarbor—midway on Lake 
Chelan — whereas we should look for them in vain at twice the 
elevation on the hills at the foot of the lake. 
A residence of fourteen months in this county, June, 1895 to 
August, 1896, with headquarters at Chelan, a small town at the 
foot of Lake Chelan, gave me a fair opportunity to study the bird 
life of the region, and especially since my business required me 
to travel over 2000 miles on horse back, to all parts except the 
extensive Indian reservation on the east side of the Okanogan 
River. In the summer of 1895 and again in 1896, trips were 
made to the high ranges west of Lake Chelan, Wright’s Peak (alt. 
9310 feet) being the objective point on both occasions, so that 
the list of mountain birds is fairly inclusive. 
Gulls sometimes visit the lake, but the species were not learned. 
It is almost certain that many stragglers and rarer residents, not- 
ably Buteos and Limicole, are unrecorded. Okanogan County 
is important as representing practically the northern limit of 
Upper Sonoran forms, and as being the southernmost debatable 
ground between Pacific Slope and Rocky Mountain trinomials. 
How much it is affected by Puget Sound ‘saturated’ forms, it is 
at present impossible to determine, but there is here a large 
field for the study of transition forms. 
Even such a brief survey would be incomplete without mention 
of the characteristically mild winter climate of this region. This 
is, of course, effected by the influence of the Japan Stream, so 
that the temperature seldom falls to zero in the lower valleys. 
The warm winds are, moreover, deprived of their superabundant 
moisture by the western mountains, so that they pass eastward 
warm and dry. This fact tempts many birds to winter about 
Chelan, who in any other longitude of their range would have to 
pass hundreds of miles further south to find as mild a tempera- 
