BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



Flocks of band-tailed pigeons were seen every now and then, 

 while the swift-flying mourning-dove returned at the first inti- 

 mation of spring. Long lines of wild geese in wedge-shaped 

 files were flying overhead, and their noisy honking floated down 

 from the far regions of the sky like voices from another world. 



With the advent of spring came the turkey-buzzards, 

 wheeling in easy gyrations from crest to crest of the rugged 

 mountains. A silent shadow passes along the green hillside, and 

 looking up I see one of these great black creatures, with its out- 

 spread, fringed wings, serenely climbing upon the impalpable 

 air in calm triumph at its mastery of the element. Oh, thou 

 ugly, bald-headed harpy, banqueting upon the offal of life's 

 charnel-house, thou hast only to launch upon the air to become 

 sublime ! 



The red-tailed hawk is screaming in its ecstasy of love- 

 making, and the meddlesome, blue- fronted jay has the audac- 

 ity to imitate its cries. There are two distinct species of the jay 

 family commonly found in California, one inhabiting the low- 

 lands especially, and known as the California jay, and the 

 other chiefly haunting the coniferous regions, called the blue- 

 fronted jay. The latter is a larger and more showy bird, with 

 a conspicuous crest, which is wanting in the lowland species. 

 Its back and head are of a smoky black color, which gradually 

 merges into a dull blue on the upper tail-coverts and on the 

 breast. The wings and tail are a brilliant blue barred with 

 black, and a few streaks of the same mark the forehead. The 

 California jay is smaller and less striking in its coloring. The 

 under parts are dull white, streaked with blue on the sides of 

 the throat, the back is blue, varied with gray in the center, 

 while above the eye is a well-defined streak of white. Both 



1821 



