Page:Condor14(3).djvu/3

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THE. CO.]B.R Volume xiV Ma?-June, 1012 Number SOME NORTH-CENTRAL ?OLORADO BIRD NOTES By EDWARD R. WARREN WITH MAP AND TWELVE PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR URING the summer of 1911 I made a somewhat extended wagon trip through the north-central portion of Colorado, more especially for the pur- pose of collecting and studying mammals and birds, though other things were not neglected. I was accompanied by Mr. H. R. Durand as assistant and general factotum, and he proved every bit as satisfactory in those capacities as he was in 1909 when he was also with me. Mr. Durand was not with me the first few days, as he had the bad luck to contract the measles shortly before the starting (lay, and until he recovered I had William Newcomb of Colorado Springs for a companion, who also proved himself all right. As will be seen by the accompany- ing map my route was decidedly crooked. All told I traveled about 700 miles. Leaving Colorado Springs May 18, I first went northward onto the "Divide", as the watershed between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers is commonly called. This is a yellow pine region, over 7000 feet elevation, and the surface is what is usually termed rolling. Camping at Elbert the night of the 19th, we woke the' next morning to find snow on the ground and a howling blizzard in full action. We did not move camp that day, or the next either, though it had somewhat mod- erated then. From Elbert we traveled eastward, but not quite as I had planned, for I was obliged to swing off to the southward by Ramah instead of taking a more direct route to River Bend and Cedar Point, my first objectives. I did not do a great deal of collecting along here as it was largely the dry plains region, and without much of interest. Often we had to make long drives before we could find a camp with feed and water, and picked up what fuel we could along the road. Reaching River Bend the 24th I went to Cedar Point, a few miles north- westerly, the next morning, and camped, having previously got into communication with Durand, and found out when he could join me. Cedar Point is the highest elevation in that locality, a few hundred feet higher than the surrounding country.