310 CALIFORNIA BIRD STUDIES 



continued by steamer across Lake Tahoe, and the railway 

 reached at Truckee. I commend it with enthusiasm to the 

 nature-loving tourist. 



We camped beneath the spruces, at an elevation of 7000 

 feet, and from this base ascended to still higher woods, 

 where great snow banks lay in the shade of the trees. 



The season was less advanced here than in Glen Alpine. 

 Hermit Thrushes, (Hylocichla quttata sequoiensis], were 

 singing divinely, and on several occasions I heard the ecs- 

 tatic, highly musical outburst of the Solitaire. It is wholly 

 unlike the songs of the Mexican Solitaires, (Myiadestes uni- 

 color and M. obscurus), but strongly suggests the rapid 

 flight song of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 



We were now fairly in the the Boreal Zone. Lincoln 's 

 Sparrows sang from the alders bordering the snow-fed 

 brooks, Canadian Nuthatches trumpeted nasally from the 

 pines, while Pine Grosbeaks, (Pinicola enudeator calif orni- 

 ca) and Evening Grosbeaks, (Coccothraustes vespertinus 

 montanus] furnished even more impressive evidence of the 

 boreal character of our faunal position. Still, less than fif- 

 ty miles away, on the warm, western Sierran foot-hills, I 

 had seen orange groves. 



The nights were cool at Silver Creek, and rolled in our 

 blankets, we sought close companionship with the camp fire. 



Doubtless it was to the sense of friendliness and good 

 cheer, born of a certain atmospheric hospitality which char- 

 acterizes Sierra summers ; to the tonic of mountain air ; to 

 the melody of the Hermit Thrush and joyous carol of the 

 Solitaire ; to the singing of a thousand streams on their way 

 to the sea ; to a hundred subtle, potent causes, that I may at- 

 tribute the physical exhilaration and spiritual exaltation 

 which I experienced in the Sierras. 



Enter California through the deserts that form its south- 

 ern boundaries, but leave it, if leave it you must, through 

 the passes of these majestic mountains. You may go out 

 from their shadow but never from under their influence. 



