Vol.xxxvn Munro, Birds of the Okanagan Valley. 73 



often be located bv their excited cries. They come readily to an imitation 

 of the call of the Pygmy Owl or the Horned Owl and will investigate the 

 caller at close range. 



Their food is largely the seed of the Yellow Pine during the fall and winter 

 but they are omnivorous at other seasons. I once saw a single bird feed- 

 ing on the carcass of a Bushy-tailed Wood Rat (Neotoma columUana\ 

 Mr C De B. Green tells me they have the corvine habit of eating birds 

 eggs Several nests of Hermit Thrushes, Horned Larks and Pipits, that 

 were under observation, above timber line on Apex Mountain, were 

 destroyed by a pair of Clarke's Nutcrackers. 



Three nests were found on March 9, 1912, by Major Allan Brooks, 

 assisted by the writer. This was in Yellow Pine country; a series of 

 wooded benches overlooking Okanagan Lake. There was some snow on 

 the ground, the days were warm, with bright sunshine and the nights 



were frosty. . 



Number one. Nest loose and bulky, of rotten wood and desiccated 

 pine grass on a platform of stout pine twigs; fifty feet from the ground 

 and eight feet from the trunk, in a Yellow Pine. The female was sitting 



on two fresh eggs. 



Number two. Nest of the same materials as number one. l^orty leet 



above the ground in a Yellow Pine. Female sitting on two fresh eggs. 



Number three. Twentv-five feet from the ground and twelve feet from 



the trunk of a Douglas Fir. This nest was found by watching one of the 



birds gathering sheep's wool that had caught on a barbed wire fence, and 



carrying it to the nest. The three partly incubated eggs were collected 



ten days later. The young are faintly spotted with white on the under- 



parts. 



Pipilo maculatus montanus. Spurred Towhee.— Common sum- 

 mer resident. I have a report from a reliable observer, of a single bird, 

 wintering at Sunnywold, fifteen miles south of Okanagan Landing; and a 

 bird seen here on February 17, 1917, had probably been in the vicinity all 

 winter. March 20 is the average date of their arrival and October 10 

 of their departure. They raise two and possibly three broods; the earliest 

 date for a full set of eggs is May 3, 1916. A nest found on July 22, 1913, 

 containing newly hatched young was possibly a third brood. 



Juveniles in various stages of moult swarm in all the patches of brush, 

 along the lower hills from the last of May until September. The irides 

 of the young are first bluish, practically without color, then hazel and later 

 dull orange. n 



The alarm note of the adults is similar to the Catbird's " meow. 



The situation and material of the following nest is typical. 



May 19, 1917. Four eggs; incubation started; nest on the ground 

 near shore'of lake and thicket of hawthorns; made of the inner bark of 

 cottonwood, wild sunflower and other weed stalks and lined with dry grass. 



Myadestes townsendi. Townsend's Solitaire.— Common resident 

 nesting on the ledges and crevices of rock bluffs. On June 11, 1917, while 

 motoring along a narrow road above the Tulameen River, past a rock 



