THE WESTERN TREE SPARROW. 125 



woodland pool; but on the first occasion it took the parent bird exacth* half 

 an hour to go thru all the feints and preliminaries before she ventured on 

 the final plunge. There were half-grijwn babies in this nest, and since we 

 were in summer camp (at Glacier, near the foot of j\lt. Baker), I resolved 

 to make friends of this promising family with a view to portraiture. 



As I sat next day watching my Juncoes, and waiting for the sun to get 

 around and light up the vicinity of the nest, the call to dinner sounded. The 

 mother bird, not without much misgiving and remonstrance, had just visited 

 her babies, so I rose to go^; but as I did so, caught sight of a stout garter 

 snake, who lay watching the scene from a distance of fully twenty feet, a 

 wicked gleam of intelligence in his eye. With quick suspicion of his pur- 

 pose, I seized stones and hurled at his retreating form; but the ground was 

 rough and he managed to escape into a large brush-pile. At table I ate 

 hurriedly, listening the while for the faintest note of trouble. When it came, 

 a quick outcry from both parents, instead of premonitory notes of discovery, 

 I sprang to my feet, clutched a stick, and rushed down to the spring. Alas 

 for us ! Satan had found our Eden ! The nest was emptied and the snake 

 lay coiled over it in the act of swallowing one of the little birds. Not daring 

 to strike, I seized him by the throat and released the baby Junco, whose 

 rump only had disappeared intO' the devouring jaws. Then with the stick 

 I made snake's-head jelly on a rock and flung the loathsome reptile away. 

 But it was all too late. One young bird lay drowned upon the bottom of 

 the pool, and the other (I think there were only two) soon died of fright 

 and the laceration of the hinder parts attendant upon ophidian deglutition. 

 It was all so horrible! the malignant plan, the stealthy approach, the sudden 

 alarm, the wanton destruction of the fledglings, the grief of the agonized 

 parents, the remorse of the helper who came too late! Is it any wonder 

 that our forbears have pictured the arch-enemy as a serpent? 



No. 49. 



WESTERN TREE SPARROW. 



A. O. U. No. 559 a. Spizella monticola ochracea Brewster. 



Description. — Adults: Pileum. a streak behind eye and a small patch on 

 side of chest cinnamon-rufous or light chestnut: a superciliary stripe and remain- 

 ing portions of head and neck clear ashy gray I throat and chest of same shade 

 superficially but duller by virtue of concealed dusky; an ill defined spot of dusky 

 in center of lower chest : remaining underparts dull white washed on sides with 

 brownish ; general color of upperparts light huffy grayish brown, much out- 

 cropping black on back, scapulars and tertials ; some rusty edging on back 

 feathers, scapulars and greater wing-coverts : middle and greater wing-coverts 



