44 Proceedings 
of no mean height. The Sugar Pine, Yellow Pine, Doug- 
las Spruce and Silver Fir are the most abundant. We 
estimated that half a million trees were in sight at a time 
as we climbed the mountain side between Wawond and 
Yosemite. Sixteen species of Conifers grow on the Sierras. 
The birds of these forests are not numerous. The 
White-faced Woodpecker and Stellars Jay enliven the 
solitudes ; the Californian Brown Creeper (almost the 
same as our British bird) and three kinds of Nuthatch 
climb stealthily up and down the mighty tree trunks ; the 
Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets take the place 
of our Goldcrest ; the Mountain Chickadee represents our 
Cole Tit ; on the streams the American Dipper dashes by 
in headlong flight; overhead the Black Swift circles, That 
large black and white bird jerking his way across the valley 
is Clarke’s Nutcracker. The Mountain Quail from far up 
the hillside makes its high, nervous whistle; the Sooty 
Grouse takes refuge amongst the thick boughs of the lofty 
pines. 
Let us now leave the pine forests and come down to the 
coast. 
The tule or willow-beds in the lowlands are the home 
of a very fine bird, the Bicolored Blackbird. ‘The shining 
black plumage of the male is ornamented with a brilliant 
shoulder patch of scarlet, margined with buff. These black- 
birds, or more properly, Starlings, are noisy fellows, who 
live in companies and make a sweet call, “twiddle, diddle, 
diddle.” Their mates are smaller and very plain, streaked 
with brown and white. 
Very different is the guttural cry of the Belted King- 
fisher, which resembles a deep watchman’s rattle. The bird 
is as large as a Jay and is bluish above and white beneath. 
It has a crest and a long, sharp bill. It haunts most of the 
rivers and streams in the State, 
In the meadows near the coast you will meet with the 
American Crow, a local bird in California, but by far the 
most noticeable bird in winter time in the Eastern States. 
From both coast and upland meadows comes the shrill 
“kill-der-kill-dee” of the Kildeer Plover, a bird which takes 
