escarpment, that to the southeast, has a deeply-toothed crest and
between two of the teeth lies the lip of a glacier; the slopes
below carry snow all summer (Fig. 34).

Bird life in the cold alpine forests was decidedly limited,
the only species recorded being golden-crowned kinglet, American
robin, winter wren, pine grosbeak and pine siskin. On the open
slopes above, Oregon junco and golden-crowned sparrow, the latter
feeding young, were abundant. On the alplands were broods of blue
grouse, white-tailed ptarmigan and pipit.

SUMMARY OF WATERFOWL OBSERVATIONS

The regions visited in central British Columbia contain many
lakes, large and small, as well as sloughs, marshes and ponds.
While many of these waters obviously do not fulfill the require-
ments of waterfowl reproduction others as obviously do. A number
of places visited contained in varying degree the cover, the
plants and the animals sufficient to provide nesting protection
and food for relatively large populations of diving ducks, pond
ducks and coots. At no place, however, could ducks be described
as plentiful, and coots were rare. The only difference noted
between nesting grounds of the best types here and in the Cariboo
Parklands, where waterfowl are relatively abundant, was in the
water itself. Equipment for making pH determinations was
not available but it was obvious that waters in this section
are soft (acid), while those in the Cariboo Parklands are alkaline,
some strongly so. For the most part, the shallow alkaline lakes of
the latter region occupy depressions in the flat or rolling grass-
lands. There is no counterpart of these conditions in central
British Columbia. There, most of the open flat areas contain
muskeg and the boggy-shored lakes associated with that type of
habitat. The nearest approach to conditions as exemplified by
the Cariboo Parklands is along part of the north shore of Francois
Lake, and this incidentally contained the largest waterfowl popula-
tion units.

Mallard was the most common and widely distributed species;
other ducks in order of their abundance were baldpate, ring-necked
duck, lesser scaup duck, buffle head, Barrow golden-eye, and green-
winged teal. A pair of blue-winged teal, nine cinnamon teal and

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