Hermit Warbler found its way to the National Museum. (Proc. Cooper Orn. Club, Nidologist IV, p. 3).
In June, 1897, Mr. Beck was called from his camp in the Sierras to San Francisco where he became a member of the Frank B. Webster expedition under command of C. M. Harris and spent seven months collecting in the Galapagos Archipelago. The expedition brought back much new and valuable material which went into the Rothschild collection in London. Mr. Beck was honored in having a species of Certhidea named after him. It was from this expedition that the Giant Tortoise shown in the plate was secured.
Mr. Beck has made two collecting trips to Santa Cruz Island and others of the channel group where he secured considerable material of special interest, among them being specimens of the Island Shrike from which the type was described by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns in the Auk for July, 1898, as Lanius ludovicianus anthonyi He also took the first recorded nests and eggs of the Santa Cruz Jay on Santa Cruz Island, from all of which work one may judge of the extreme energy of Mr. Beck as a field worker. His skill as a sportsman is not less pronounced than his careful work in ornithology, and he is withal a true naturalist, a lover of the rod, gun and camera, possessed of a keen perception of art in nature and a modesty for the value of his scientific work. Mr. Beck's collecting grounds cover a rugged country but yield several sets of Golden Eagle each year, due more to tireless energy than good fortune. As a member of the Cooper Club since 1894 Mr. Beck has held the offices of president and vice president and contributed to the advancement of the Club.
The plate herewith given represents Mr. Beck mounting his Giant Tortoise from the Galapagos Islands. The tortoise lived for almost a year after its arrival at Berryessa and seemed to thrive upon a diet of cactus and would in all probability have lived many years to enjoy the salubrious climate of the Santa Clara Valley had it not on an evil evening forgotten to draw in its head! A frost came, the tortoise was nipped in the bud, and we present the very natural picture of Mr. Beck putting the finishing touches to a really excellent pose of the tortoise. C. B.
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The Genus Junco in California.
BY HENRY B. KAEDING, TAYLORSVILLE, CAL.
[Read before the Northern Division of the Cooper Orn. Club, July 1 1899.]
THE State of California may be roughly divided into three sections, each having its characteristic climate and subsequent peculiarities in flora and fauna, and to the ornithologist it is particularly interesting to note the influence that these climatic conditions bring to bear upon the avifauna of the state.
The first of these sections is the Coast Range Mts. from the vicinity of Monterey, northward. Here we have a cool, moist region, of no great altitude, subject to sea breezes and fogs. The birds of this section show distinct traces of northern characteristics, as for instance, Cyanocitta stelleri, Bubo virginianus stauratus, Oreortyx pictus, etc. While of course at the southern end of this area some of the forms merge into their southern races and hence are intermediate in form, as one moves north along the coast, the races become more distinct until the pronounced forms of the northern states are reached. It is in this strip of coast and nowhere else that typical Chamæa fasciata is found, and it is only in the northern part of this section that anything approaching Junco hyemalis oregonus may be found breeding.
The second section may be called the "low-lands" and comprises the broad valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, with their adjacent rolling and foot-hill country. Here will be found the birds loving a hot, comparatively dry atmosphere—a profusion of blackbirds, meadowlarks, Black-headed Grosbeaks, etc. These birds reach their greatest abundance in this region, although they spread more or loss plentifully all over the state.
Lastly and the most distinct of any,
