CALIFORNIA PINE GROSBEAK 345 



for, during several vacations spent in the high Sierra, I have met with 

 it only on rare occasions." 



Milton S. Ray (1912) has published an interesting paper, describing 

 the summer haunts of this grosbeak and the difficulties encountered 

 by him and his party in their search for its nest, in which they were 

 finally successful. The paper is well illustrated with 16 photographs, 

 showing the ruggedness of the snow-covered heights. The story is 

 far too long to be repeated here, but it is well worth reading, as illus- 

 trating the scarcity of the bird and its erratic habits. 



Nesting. — After much hard work, extending over several seasons in 

 the same general region, Ray and his companions at last succeeded in 

 findmg two nests and collecting two sets of eggs of the elusive Cah- 

 fornia pine grosbeak. Of the first nest, he says: "Measurement 

 showed the nest to be sixteen feet above the ground, fom* feet from 

 the trunk and twenty-one inches from the tip of the branch. The 

 red fir in which it was placed was on a sloping mountain side where the 

 rather scattered timber rose among huge boulders, fallen trees and 

 fast melting banks of snow. * * * 



"The nest was simply a rough platform of twigs, principally fir, and 

 was thickly lined with very fine light-colored grasses. So thick is this 

 grass lining that eggs in the nest were not visible from below. The 

 twig platform measures 6X8 inches, the grass nest cavity, 5 by 4^ by 

 1% inches deep." 



He describes the finding of the second nest as follows: "The female 

 was seen to fly to a nearby tree where she began hopping from branch 

 to branch until a height of about 25 feet had been attained whereupon 

 she flew to, and disappeared in, the thick foliage of a hemlock bough. 

 Advancing nearer, Littlejohn could just discern the tail of the bird 

 projecting over what might be a nest and which on my climbing the 

 tree proved so to be. Being situated eight feet out near the end of 

 the limb, and in a thick patch of foliage, it could not be seen from 

 above except by spreading the branches apart. On doing this and 

 after the sitting bird had been urged oflF with a long stick the nest was 

 seen to contain three eggs." The nest was similar to the first one. 



Both of these nests were found in the vicinity of Pyramid Peak, 

 Eldorado County, Calif., at elevations between 6,500 and 8,000 feet, 

 and were under observation for several days between June 15 and 

 19, 1912. 



Richard Hunt (1921) found a nest of this grosbeak in Plumas 

 County, Calif., on July 12, 1921, containing three young almost ready 

 to fly. It was 20 feet up in a lodgepole pine and was much like those 

 described above. 



"The nest was placed on a horizontal forked branch about 3 inches 

 from the main trunk (at this height 1% inches in diameter), and 



