52 PACnnC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 15 



Canyon. He saitl that it was "'the eoninionest warbler by far. in Upper Sono- 

 ran and low Transition, along the stream beds." Tt traveled "singly or in 

 pairs, spreading its tail and wings and darting after insects." Occasionally 

 he found it "extraordinarily confiding." 



The t'irsi seen at onr camp at the upper edge of the Lower Soiioi-an zone 

 was on Mai'eli Hi iiiid 17. 11)1^1 , aftei- which one to thi-ee were seen on cold days 

 about the ranch until April 25, hunting over the trunks and branches of the 

 live oaks and flycatching in characteristic Redstart maimer. Others were seen 

 on the ocotillo slope above camp and by the pools in Stone Cabin Canyon at 

 about 4,500 feet, and they were also reported from a camp about a mile above. 

 Several times one was chased out of a tree-top by an Audubon Warbler. They 

 hunted in the mesquite and on the oak roots, stones, and ground, but their 

 favorite hunting place seemed to be the massive trunks and branches of the 

 old live oaks. They Avould climb up the sides of the trunks, their short legs 

 helped by flips of their long tail, and twist and turn with spread plumes. 

 Sometimes they would cling to the underside of a branch like a woodpecker. 

 But in the main they would, by help of their short legs and long balancing 

 tails, hop across the great boles, picking insects from the crevices of the closely 

 knit bark. Tn flight, sometimes the white scissors of the tail are all one sees, 

 the black and red of the plumage being lost in the dense shadows of the live 

 oak tops and against the sky. And Avlien one darts out from the dense shadow 

 into the sun, the tail seems all white. They fly out like flycatchers, catching 

 an insect and darting back to the tree trunk with it. Their song begins with 

 an ordinary warbler iclirr-tfc. whee-tpe, but ends unusually, both call and song 

 having individual rich contralto quality. 



On June 21, 1928. Mrs. Nicholson wrote — "there has been a lot of Red- 

 starts down this spring," and commented on their tameness. 



Cardellina rubrifrons. Red-faced Warbler 



Pour- adults were taken by Nelson, July 1 and 5. and three juveniles July 

 5, 1884, in the mountains above Gardner's Ranch. One Avas seen by Vorhies, 

 June 15, 1918, at the head of Madera Canyon, and a single immature bird was 

 taken by Howell, August 1, 1918, fi'om a live oak on a hillside in Madera 

 (^an,yon. Xo othei's were seen. 



Oreoscoptes montanus. Sage Thi-asher 



One was seen by us in January and again on February 1, 1921. in the mes- 

 quite and catselaw below 4.000 feet. On March 15. another was seen running 

 over the sand in the Santa Cruz bottoms, at about 2.900 feet. 



Mimus polyg-lottos leucopterus. Western Mockingbii'd 



Mockingbirds were very common. Nelson says, "among the live oaks 

 ;it Gardner's Ranch in June and July. 1884. They were in full song and dur- 

 ing the brilliantly- eleai' moonlight in June they sang in an ecstasy of bird joy 



