ZOOLOGY. 87 



ludoviciana,) and they do indeed strongly resemble it in markings and habit. I have even seen 

 prepared specimens of Sturnella from the Sacramento valley ticketed S. ludoviciana by ornitholo- 

 gists. I am, however, strongly persuaded that among the myriads of larks which we saw, and 

 the dozens we shot in California and Oregon, not one was identical with the eastern species. 

 Though the plumage is very like, and all the movements, attitudes and habits are similar, I 

 regard the whole as a beautiful example of a representative species. Any one who has passed 

 his years of boyhood in intimate companionship with the birds in the meadow, the orchard, and 

 the forest, learns to recognize the notes of each familiar one as readily as he recognizes the voices 

 of his family friends. Such an one, though he may be momentarily deceived by a familar look, 

 will never fail to detect the voice of a stranger. I am certain I never heard the note of S. ludo- 

 viciana in California. There is probably still another species in California. 



ICTERUS BULLOCKII. 



Bullock's Oriole. 



Common in the Sacramento valley, particularly in the trees bordering streams, and on river 

 bottoms in summer. 



CHRYSOMITRIS TRISTIS. 



The Yellow Bird. 



This pretty bird and sweet songster was a constant source of pleasure, and, with its familiar 

 form and note, a solace of exile in the interior of California and Oregon, far from the haunts of 

 men, when almost everything beside was new and strange. We found it quite common to the 

 Columbia. 



CHRYSOMITRIS PSALTRIA. 

 Western Goldfinch. 

 Common in the valleys of California. 



LOXIA AMERICANA. 

 Cross-bill. 



The little cross-bill is a constant feature of the pine forests of Oregon and northern California. 

 Often the silence and solitude of an entire day's march through the sombre monotony of the 

 forests of yellow pine were relieved only by the low but cheerful chirp of flocks of these birds. 

 Around the rare and widely separated watering places at morning and evening they would 

 gather in considerable numbers to drink. 



I procured specimens of both sexes at the very source of the main branch of the Willamette 

 river, in the Cascade mountains. 



ZONOTRICHIA LEUCOPHRYS. 



The White-crowned Finch. 



This finch I found very abundant on the bush-covered sand hills about San Francisco ; in 

 November, and more rarely during the summer, in northern California and Oregon. The 

 plumage and especially the note of the western bird seem to identify it with the white-crowned 

 sparrow of the eastern States. 



