Page:Condor4(6).djvu/1

Cbe Condor MAGAZINE7 OF ItVETSTE71N OINITI-"IOLOGY' Bt-Konthly Bullerisa of the Cooper Ornithological Cllxb Vol. 4. No. 6. Santa Clara, Cal., November-December, 1902 $t.oo a Year Birds of the Little Sur River, Monterey County. BY JOSEPH GRINNELL. HE three days from July tt to t 3 last summer I spent in a trip down the coast from Monterey to the Little Sur River some twenty-five miles south. A party of us from the Hopkins Laboratory including Dr. O. P. Jenkins and several members of the class in ornithology set out on our wheels early Friday morning. In spite of the rough roads and almost continu- ous series of steep hills we thoroughly enjoyed the picturesque scenery which presented points of new interest at nearly every turn. The road follows the hillsides facing the rugged coast- line and crosses many ravines which cut down tranversely to the ocean. The Monterey pines which make up the forest on the Monterey peninsula cease entirely within a couple of miles below Point Lobos, and then comes a stretch of perhaps fifteen miles without a native tree of any sort until the mouth of Mill creek is reached. Here the first redwoods were met with, and those most exposed to the prevailing strong sea-breezes presented a curious flattened-down appearance. Behind the brow of a hill the tree tops were abruptly lopped off level with the top of the sheltering ridge, those right at the crest being only a few feet in height, but with broadly branching fop iage. The road winds up over two divides before finally zigzagging down into the deep valley of the Little Sur. Here, toward the mouth, are several farms, and on the south fork where the dense redwood timber begins is a sum- met camp or "hotel" called Idlewild. This we made our headquarters for the two nights of our stay. The crest of the Santa Lucia mountains which par- allel the coast is here fully 3500 feet high, though scarcely ten miles inland from the sea-board. Yet the short can- yons which cut westward down this rainy and foggy Pacific shed carry even in summer considerable streams. This narrow coastal slope is in continuation with California's "humid coast belt," and the Little Sur marks nearly its ex- treme southern limit. At least the red- woods so characteristic of thi? belt do not extend as far south as San Simeon, fifty miles below; the intermediate coun- try seems to be almost a terra incognita. Upon gazing over the Mill Creek divide into Little Sur Valley, we felt well repaid for our last dusty climb. For below us the dense dark forest looked invitingly cool and the murmur of mountain brooks came filtering up from the shady depths. To the right, between the ifilIs guarding the mouth of the valley, shimmered the placid