BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



repeatedly sounding his call, and occasionally emphasizing it 

 with a flirt of the tail. 



Gambel's shrike, a variety of butcher-bird, made himself 

 very much at home about the mission during my stay there. He 

 would sit patiently in a leafless peach tree in the front garden, 

 waiting for plunder, and always impressed me as being such a 

 very clean-cut, smooth sort of a bird. He looked so innocent 

 and would even essay an attempt at a warble on special occa- 

 sions. See him as he stands there with his soft, bluish gray 

 back, his pale grayish white breast, the conspicuous black 

 streak upon his cheeks, his black tail and the heavy black trim- 

 mings, edged with white, on the wings. He remains immov- 

 able for some time, apparently unconcerned with anything in 

 the world. Now and then he looks quietly to the right and left, 

 when a sudden gust of wind, springing up from the sea, puffs 

 out his feathers and unsettles his equilibrium for a moment. 

 Suddenly he is all animation. His sharp eye has espied a 

 cricket in the grass and he flutters down to the ground for his 

 prey, soon to resume his perch and quiet, dignified ways. I am 

 sorry to say that the butcher-bird is not averse to making a meal 

 of some luckless little bird when insect fare is scarce. 



One frosty morning I found a female Audubon*s warbler 

 lying dead on the threshold of my door, where it had probably 

 gone for shelter. This little creature is peculiarly sensitive to 

 the cold and often succumbs to a sharp frost, yet it persists in 

 passing the winter all over the valley region of California in- 

 stead of going farther south with the other warblers. I wrote 

 down a description of the little creature in my hand, as follows : 

 Back, grayish brown faintly streaked with dull black; rump, 

 yellow; tail, dull black. A clear spot of white marked each 



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