PIPILO MEGALONYX— P. ORIXIONUS. 491] 



(Icteria longkauda and Melospiza heermanni); juid in tlie lower fertile valleys 

 of the Interior, as those of the Truckee and Carson rivers, it chose similar 

 localities along the river-banks. It was extremely rare in the fertile 

 mountain canons, excepting their lower portions, being far from common in 

 the vicinity of our camps in the West Humboldt range. It was nowhere 

 else so numerous as along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, near Carson 

 City, where it was the most abundant bird among the scattered scraggy 

 shrubs of dwarf- plum {Prunus demissaf) mixed with currant bushes, which 

 grew plentifully in the old fields just below the commencement of the pine 

 timber. There it was found chiefly during the spring, summer, and autumn, 

 none having been observed during the coldest part of the winter, at which 

 time they had sought shelter in the dense willow thickets in the river-valleys. 

 About the middle of February, however, they began returning to their sum- 

 mer haunts at the foot of the mountains, and were observed, at first sparingly, 

 in the locality described above, as well as in the dense chaparral of laurel 

 (Ceanothus velutinus) and manzanita {Arctostaphijlus glauca) on the sides of the 

 ravines. Up to about the 9th of March they were nearly silent, their only 

 note being a very common-place teish, uttered usually in an impertinent tone. 

 At about the above date, however, the males commenced to sing, or rather to 

 litter their rude trill, during the delivery of which the performer occupied a 

 conspicuous position, as the summit of a tall bush or the top of a high rock, 

 where he sat for an hour at a time, as h^ performed his part in the morn- 

 ing chorus, the black and white of his markings contrasting boldly, and his 

 forai clearly defined against the blue sky. The quality of the performance, 

 however, it seemed to us, by no means justified such ostentation, for it 

 amounted to no more than a rude trill, so simple as not to deserve the name 

 of song, notwithstanding the frequency of its repetition and the earnestness 

 of the perforaier. None of the few notes uttered by this bird bear the 

 remotest resemblance to those of the eastern species (P. erythrophthiilmus), 

 although the spring-call described above may be compared to the final trill 

 of the very creditable performance of the latter bird. At all times this 

 bird was excessively shy — another striking contrast to its eastern relative — 

 and was thus extremely difiicult to procure, seldom allowing one to approach 

 within gunshot ; if too closely followed, flitting in its peculiar manner, for 



