THE OOLOOIST 



105 



greasewood, the home of Jack rabbits, 

 rattlesnakes, sage thrashers, and 

 Dotted canyon wrens, one can, in a 

 day's travel on horseback travel 

 through, first, an open park, like area 

 of yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) and 

 benches of bunch-grass; through sev- 

 eral miles of Douglas Fir (Pseudot- 

 suga taxifolia) to dense forests of Mur- 

 ray pine, (Pinus murrayana) and En- 

 glemans spruce (Picea engelmani) ; 

 and reach toward evening an alpine 

 country above timber line, where false 

 heather is the most luxuriant growth 

 and white-tailed ptarmigan, pipets, 

 pallid horned larks and Audubon her- 

 mit thrushes are breeding. A journey 

 showing as many changes as one 

 would find in travelling from Kansas 

 to the Hudson Bay. 



The many valleys of British Colum- 

 bia are shut off from each other by 

 high mountain ranges. The bird mi- 

 grations follow the valleys north and 

 south and there is practically no com- 

 munication from east to west. This 

 has resulted in a certain amount of 

 modification in various species and 

 greatly enlarged the field for original 

 investigation. It has been the writer's 

 privilege to spend the past seven years 

 in this magic land, engaged in zoologi- 

 cal field work. The greater part of 

 the work was done in the Okanagan 

 Valley. The larger portion of this dis- 

 trict is in the Dry Belt; the more 

 southern part being fairly open; — 

 sage-brush flats on the lower levels, 

 succeeded by wide benches of bunch- 

 grass and open stands of yellow pine, 

 as one ascends the hills. Farther 

 north the hills are more heavily tim- 

 bered, yellow pine being the principal 

 tree of the low altitudes. These merge 

 into the stands of Douglas Fir higher 

 up on the hills, and these in turn are 

 succeeded by Murray pine, Western 

 Larch and Engleman's spruce, near the 

 summits. In the lower hills, therefore, 

 there are two distinct life-zones, the 



Transitional Zone characterized by 

 the heavy growth of yellow pine and 

 such birds as Lewis' .Woodpeckers 

 (Asyndesmus lewisi), Pygmy Nuthatch 

 (Sitta pygmaea pygyaea) etc.; and 

 the Canadian Zone, the most charac- 

 teristic birds of which are the Alaskan 

 Three-toed Woodpeckers (Picoides 

 Americanus fasciatus), Columbian 

 Chickadee (Penthestes hudsonicus 

 columbianus) and Rocky Mountain 

 Jay (Perisoreus canadensis capitalis). 

 These species remain entirely within 

 the limits of the Murray pine and 

 spruce. Many transitional forms pene- 

 trate into the heavy forests of the 

 Canadian Zone but usually in small 

 numbers. Still farther north from 

 Vernon to Shuswap Lake, the valley 

 is narrower, the soil is heavier and 

 there is a greater precipitation. Mur- 

 ray pine appears at a lower altitude, 

 there are stands of western red cedar 

 (Thuja plicata) and the yellow pine is 

 not so much in evidence. 



Okanagan Lake is about ninety 

 miles long and between three and four 

 miles wide. The wooded shore, gen- 

 erally are steep, varied by occasional 

 gently sloping areas and alluvial flats 

 at the mouths of the creeks, grown 

 over with deciduous trees, the prin- 

 cipal species being black cottonwood 

 (Populus trichocarpa), aspen (Populus 

 tremulordis) western birch (Betula 

 fontinales) and several species of wil- 

 low (Salex). 



The land is settled wherever the 

 conditions are suitable, fruit growing 

 and mixed farming being the chief in- 

 dustries. These with lumbering and 

 mining, in certain districts, support 

 the small towns of the interior. The 

 higher flats and valleys are subject to 

 summer frosts, the land generally be- 

 ing poor and stony, and these vast 

 tracks of hills and canyons, mountain 

 streams and forests, that have never 

 heard the axe of the vandal lumber- 



