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F. E. Blctamo — About Birds in North America



York for the initiative it has established, not only in founding this

station of Tropical Research, but also in placing Mr. Beebe there as

Director.


(To be continued.)


ABOUT BIRDS IN NORTH AMERICA


By F. E. Blaauw


(Continued from p. 101 .)


From San Francisco I visited the Sierra Nevada, chiefly for its

Wellingtonias and other wonderful conifers.


The first day I went by auto to Merced. At first the country was

hilly, but not wooded, and then it became flat and uninteresting,

except for the mass of small sunflowers that formed a yellow border

along the road. Scarcely any birds were visible.


I spent the night at Merced, and continued my travel next morning,

first to Miami Lodge, where I got some lunch. The road led

through a perfectly flat plain, the road being again bordered by sun¬

flowers. Then gradually we got into low mountains with hardly any

vegetation, and then as we got higher, feathery blue pines and some oak-

trees became a feature of the landscape. The pines looked very delicate

with their slender long needles and white coloured shoots, and they

seemed to be unnaturally burdened by their enormous cones ( Finns

sahiniana). The oak-trees, which, I believe, were specimens of the blue

oak ( Quercus douglasii), stood separately, or in groups, and gave the

country a parklike aspect.


As we got higher we got into regular woods where the conifers

dominated. At first I saw specimens of Pinus fonderosa, then Lihocedrus,

Abies concolor, and last, not least, the wonderful Wellingtonias. These

big trees, I am sorry to say, are mostly labelled, in so far as they are

conspicuously fine ones, and I was not a little disgusted at finding a

label with “ General Grant ” on one, and General Somebody Else on a

second one, etc., etc. The shock to my feelings was, perhaps, only

surpassed by that occasioned by all the dirt and filth left by camping

individuals at the foot of those wonders of creation. The auto is

probably considered as a blessing by most Americans, but it certainly

has taken away a great deal of the beauty of the American landscape.



