northermost occurrence of the species anywhere in the United States. The three actual northermost stations, all in Shasta County, are: Igo (Belding, Land Bds. Pac. Dist., 1890, p. 56), Fort Reading (Newberry, Pac. R. R. Rep. VI, 1857, p. 91), and Copper City, ten miles up Pitt River (Townsend, Proc. U. S. N. M. X, 1887, p. 204).
It seems that the low-lying, and often swampy central portions of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys are not inhabited by the roadrunner; at least I cannot find any records for that region. East of the Sierras the species occurs north in the Owens Valley to Big Pine (Van Denburgh, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila., April 1898, p. 209).
I am quite sure that the roadrunner does not now occur on any of the islands off the California Coast. Cooper recorded it from Santa Catalina Island (Proc. Cal. Ac. Sc. IV, Feb. 1870, p. 77); but neither myself nor any of the other late visitors that I know of have found it there.
The roadrunner in its distribution seems to follow very closely the limits of the Upper and Lower Sonoran Zones (see map of "Isothermic Areas" in Pac. Coast Avif. No. 3), especially in their arid and semiarid portions. I have found it in the San Bernardino Mountains up to above 6000 feet altitude, but this was on hot slopes where the Upper Sonoran Zone, as indicated by the flora, rises even higher.
.png)
STRAY NOTES FROM THE FLATHEAD WOODS
JUNE 5, 1906.—Today for the first time I heard the singing of the white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys). The songster was sitting in a tall dead pine tree, about midway up on a bare branch, and the song rang out beautifully clear and bell-like, as no other sparrow-song heard in this region. For a moment I felt all the thrill of a new sensation, the charm of a new voice in the woodland chorus. Again and again it rang out, a repeated ripple of plaintive wildwood melody. Finally I annotated it like this: Wir, dee-dle dee, dee dee. The first syllable of the song is long drawn out, and the "dee-dle dee" following is remarkably sweet and liquid, vibrant and tinkling with mellowest silvery tone. The closing syllables are more hurried and are obscured.
