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320 University of California Publications in Zoology — |Vou-24

the base of the mountain is the ruffed grouse (Bonasa) extending from
the poplars below well up into the spruce and cedar woods. In
the hemlock belt, upward to the tree limit, the Franklin grouse
(Canachites) occurs. Just below timber line, and even in thickets
above, is the Fleming grouse (Dendragapus). On the Alpine-Arctie
ridges three species of ptarmigan (Lagopus) are found. For six
species of grouse to occur so nearly in the same place is, I believe, very
unusual.

ZONAL AND FAUNAL Position oF THE Upper SKEBNA VALLEY

The upper Skeena Valley lies to the eastward of the coast ranges,
and its fauna and flora, as a whole, are of the interior, not of the
coast. Conditions in many respects are similar to those of the upper
Stikine Valley (see Swarth, 1922, p. 141), two hundred miles to the
northward, and observations in the Skeena Valley tend to corroborate
conclusions reached in studies of the more northern region (Swarth,
loc. cit.). The Skeena Valley is much more humid than the upper
Stikine, and neither in animal nor plant life is it so sharply contrasted
with the coastal region. The more southern coast ranges are not so
high and precipitous as the northern mountains, and the gap through
which the Skeena reaches the coast is broad, with sloping walls.
Coastal rains often drift inland up the Skeena Valley, and cloudy
skies are frequent. Certain coastal species of birds extend inland here
much farther than they do along the Stikine.

The upper Skeena Valley, like the Stikine, is in the Canadian life
zone, contrasted with the Hudsonian zone of the seacoast (see Swarth,
1922, p. 149). Study of the list of birds breeding in the lowlands of
the Hazelton region discloses many that are not found on the coast;
mostly these are species that elsewhere occur in zones lower than
Hudsonian. Some conspicuous ones are:

Bonasa u. umbelloides mpidonax t. alnorum
Phloeotomus p. picinus Kmpidonax hammondi
Nuttallornis borealis Piranga ludoviciana

Certain species were seen about Hazelton that are usually found in
lower zones even than the Canadian. These are:
Tyrannus tyrannus Dumetella carolinensis

Stelgidopteryx serripennis Troglodytes a. parkmani
Vireosylva olivacea