404 Ray, A-Birding in an Auto. [ocf 



nest proved to be. A puzzling find was placed in a niche of a tree, 

 built warbler-style and feather-lined, but there was no sign of 

 ownership. Nearby a Heermann Song Sparrow's nest showed 

 eggs and a Spurred Towhee's contained young. 



Continuing southward we passed Goshen Junction, and thence 

 eastward through Visalia. We little thought as we went bounding 

 out of the latter town that we were destined to spend a full week 

 within its borders. Yet, such is automobiling, for when two 

 miles out, a piece of the machinery, no doubt previously strained 

 in the swamp country, gave way and left us stranded at the road- 

 side. After being towed back to town, and telegraphing East 

 for a duplicate part, we comfortably settled our camp in the leafy 

 shades of a large orchard and endeavored to convince ourselves 

 that this was the very place we had been looking for. 



May 14 to 21.— Visalia. Additional species, 8. 



Visalia lies in an open forest of oaks through which glides the 

 broad St. Johns River, besides a host of minor streams. While 

 the banks of the river and some of the streams were heavily wooded, 

 others were only fringed with a low growth of willows overhung 

 with blackberry vines. As would be expected in such a fertile 

 country as this, edging the foothills, we found bird life abundant. 

 Nearly all the species seen on the trip were again encountered 

 and many new ones. Almost everywhere the air rang with bird 

 song, and the longer we remained the less we regretted our 

 enforced stay. One species which interested us particularly, — 

 not on account of its rarity, for it was very abundant, but for the 

 reason that our previous acquaintance with it had been very slight, 

 — was the Western Blue Grosbeak. To me this bird seems a 

 strange combination of un-grosbeaklike characteristics. The male 

 and female are not greatly unlike a pair of Bluebirds in size, col- 

 oration and flight; while the nest, and also the eggs, closely re- 

 semble those of the Lazuli Bunting. The nest, placed in weed 

 thickets, neatly fastened to the stalks, from two and a half to 

 four feet up, is compactly made of grasses and weed stems and 

 lined with horse hair, the nest cavity averaging three inches wide 

 by one and three quarters deep. x\t seven o'clock one morning I 

 noticed a pair which were carrying the initial stems to a weed 

 clump along Mill Creek, so I was able to determine just how 



