202 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



as an adjunct to field work. In order to locate 

 anything in chaparral, one must be high enough 

 to overlook the mass. 



That afternoon I saw a pair of phainopeplas 

 fly up a canyon on the east, and another pair 

 fly up another on the west. If I were to know 

 anything of these birds, I must not be balked 

 by faulty observing ; I must at least do intelli- 

 gent work. Riding in from the back and tying 

 Billy out of sight away from the old nest, I 

 swung myself up into a crotch of a low oak from 

 which I could overlook the whole island. The 

 phainopeplas soon flew in, but to the opposite 

 side, and I was condemning myself for having 

 driven them away when, to my amazement, the 

 male flew over and shot down into the little oak 

 where he had been building before ! My self- 

 reproach took a different form — I had not been 

 patient enough. Surely if I could wait an hour 

 for an ordinary hummingbird, I could wait a 

 morning for an absent phainopepla. 



From the nest the beautiful bird flew to the 

 bare oak top behind it which he used for a 

 perch, and — alas ! gave his warning call. I was 

 discovered. He dashed his tail, turned his head 

 to look at me first from one side and then from 

 the other, and then flew to the top of the highest 

 tree in sight to verify his observations. Whether 

 he recognized the object as his pepper-tree ac- 

 quaintance, I do not know ; but to my great 



