22 
Annual Reports of Academy of 
our course was in the Arctic Alpine Zone. Pikas, those queer 
little cousins of the rabbits, which affect such environments in our 
western mountains as well as those of northern Asia, bleated from 
most every slide rock slope, while the large marmots, close relatives 
of our woodchuck of the East, whistled from lookout points. Those 
cheery little bird sprites of the high mountains of our West, as well 
as those of the northern Old World, the leucostictes or rosy finches, 
made up the bird life of these bleak altitudes, but my greatest dis- 
appointment was at not seeing ptarmigan. I have been in ptarmi- 
gan country a number of times, but a sight of the bird in life has 
never been my privilege. 
On the summit of St. Sophia Ridge we went through a chilling 
and dispiriting hail-storm, which numbed one to the bone, but 
fortunately it passed quickly and our ,vork in the alpine meadows 
a few hundred feet below the ridge made amends for our stiff fingers. 
Our work at high altitudes in the San Juans gave us greatly needed 
data on two strictly alpine species, while the distributional infor- 
mation secured on a number of others is invaluable. 
Leaving the high San Juans our activities were transferred to 
the lower or more desert sections of southwestern Colorado and ad- 
jacent New Mexico. At Mancos, near the Mesa Verde National 
Park, and about Durango, in the Animas Valley, we studied the 
orthopterous fauna of the juniper and pinon hill-slopes of this 
section of the state, as well as the yellow pine region of the Animas 
Valley above Durango, toward Silverton. A side trip to Farming- 
ton, New Mexico, in the San Juan River Valley, was of very great 
interest, as it is in a desert region of about 5500 feet elevation, but 
one which, when better means of communication are established, 
will be a great agricultural district, as the valley is wonderfully 
fertile when irrigated. Water here is not the major problem, 
thanks to the high mountains to the north in Colorado. Into this 
region from the southwest, from the country of the Painted Desert 
of Arizona, has entered a fauna alien to most of New Mexico, and 
in our own field of activities the evidence of this was very 
interesting. To the westward down the San Juan stretches seem- 
ingly limitless level country with scattered mountains, while sharply 
cut, like a pinnacle, the distant crag of Shiprock rises — -a spire in 
the desert. 
Chama, New Mexico, in the pines at the west foot of the Contin- 
