Page:Condor17(5).djvu/20

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190 THE CONDOR Vol. XVII partment relating to the occurrences of two interesting species. While other counties of this state have been exceedingly popular 'with ornithologists, and the avifauna in most cases well written Up, this county has scarcely been touched. And furthermore it is one of the most accessible of the coastal counties and a great deal more so than some of the Sierran divisions. And further than this it is one of the most interesting of all the coastal counties in the matter of its bird- life. /-L O. Jenkins in his paper in Tsr CONDOR, vol. W?l, pages 122-130, pointed out one very important fact regarding the country, as follows: "The region traversed was particularly interesting in that it was found to be the southern limit of the Humid Coast Belt of California. S?veral northern plants and ani- mals find their southern limits in this place and some northern forms intergrade through this region with closely allied southern forms." This of course pertains only to that part of the county lying along the coast and more properly within the Transition zone, not to the flora and fauna of the Sonoran zones which lie within the county. The basis of the present paper consists of field notes and specimens collected during two trips made by Mr. Pemberton. The first trip was made by Mr. Pem- berton in company with M.P. Anderson between December 20, 1903, and Janu- ary 6, 1904, and involved an excursion from Monterey southward along the coast to Posts and return. A fairly representative collection of the winter birds and mammals was made on this trip, and some 70 species of birds were noted. The second trip was made in the summer of 1909 between the dates May 15 and June 6, and the itinerary took the party from Kings City in the eastern part of the county westward to the coast in the vicinity of Lucia, then northward along the coast to near Posts and a ret'urn to Kings City to the north of the route followed in the first part of the journey. The party on this trip consisted of H. W. Carri- ger, G. A. Macready, Dr. J.P. Smith and J. R. Pemberton. Carriger and Pe m- berton were collecting birds, while Macready studied geology and Dr. Smith caught trout. Just in passing it may be stated that trout fishing in this region is of a superfine quality, there being many many more fish than there are fisher- men, the reverse being the case in many parts of the state. On this second trip a rather complete list of the land birds of the Transition and Upper Sonoran zones was made, and from this list the present paper has been written. Monterey county, lying about the middle of the state and directly on the Pacific coast, is about 100 miles long with an average width of about 30 miles. The coastal third consists of a lofty range of mountains dropping directly into the sea, and it is here that climatic conditions of the moist, coastal zone of the more northern parts of the state reach their so'uthern limit. South of this regio? the coastal zone lies in the San Diegan faunal area, the flora and fauna being very different. Jenkins has well shown the character of the coastal belt of Mon- terey County and given a list of the plants of the different vertical zones along the seacoast. Suffice it to say that this coastal part of the county lies in the Transition zone. The eastern side of the county consists of a low, rolling, rather bare range of hills, broken about the middle of the county by a wide valley, a part of the central Salinas Valley. In the center of the county lies another range of mountains parallel to the eastern and western ranges and more or less connected to the western range in, the center of the county where the mountains are the highest. It is in this range