610 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



As the heat of the day increases, the robins become less voluble and 

 take to foraging in the meadows, or resting silently on the lower branches 

 of the trees. With the approach of early evening they become tuneful 

 again. But as dusk comes on, the full songs are less frequently heard, and 

 these are much interspersed with the loud unmusical cries and 'squeals.' 

 At late dusk, when the birds are arranging and rearranging themselves for 

 the night on their favorite perches high in the tall trees, they accompany 

 the many short flights and changes of position with a multitude of the 

 short calls. Sometimes these evening exercises of the robin become accent- 

 uated to an extreme degree. A bird will dash about wildly, resting on 

 one perch for an instant, to sing a few bars of song, then darting to some 

 other tree, and singing again, or else uttering a series of the loud cries. 

 In early summer, robins in the Yosemite Valley have been heard singing 

 as late in the evening as eight o'clock, long after the dusk of twilight had 

 filled all but the most open portions of the Valley floor. 



With the passage of the nesting season the full song is less often heard ; 

 our latest record of a song given fully is for July 3 (1915) at El Portal. 

 Thereafter there are only a few occasional snatches of the song, as well 

 as the usual shorter calls. During the period of molt the birds are prac- 

 tically quiet. As they gather in flocks for the winter their voices are heard 

 again, but not in regular song. Their vocal disturbances while feeding 

 and when going to roost of evenings become louder and louder so that in 

 places where there is a large number of robins their calls rise into a 

 veritable babel of voices. Not until February or March are the real songs 

 again given with full strength. 



The call notes of the Western Robin, as already intimated, are various. 

 An attempt at expressing some of them in syllables, such as might be 

 uttered by the human voice, is as follows: tuk, tuk; tche'-ah or wi'ek (a 

 sort of squeal) ; wee' , Tcilk-kuk-kuk. 



Robins nest abundantly in the Yosemite region and their activities 

 while engaged in the construction of their nests and the rearing of their 

 broods are open to easy observation. Nest construction in the Transition 

 Zone as exemplified by Yosemite Valley was in progress on April 30, 1916 ; 

 and in mid-May, 1919, nests with eggs were fairly common. A nest with 

 4 fresh eggs, in which the parent was sitting, was seen at Hazel Green 

 on May 14, 1919, and on the same day other birds were seen carrying 

 building materials. On May 25, 1919, a nest with young was seen in 

 Yosemite Valley. At the McCarthy ranch, 3 miles east of Coulterville, 

 spotted-breasted young, out of the nest, were seen on June 4, 1915. Nest- 

 ing continues well into summer, for on June 14, 1915, in Yosemite Valley, 

 a female robin was seen gathering nest material. A parent bird was 

 observed feeding young in the nest in Yosemite Valley on July 15, 1915. 



