BIRDS OB' THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. 149 



ing season. Summit Meadows, Donner Pass, June 24, 

 1885, a pair beginning nest; July 7, nest and nearly 

 fresh eggs, both on the ground, but I have found nests 

 in willows. Blood's, July 9, 1880, still unmated; wil- 

 lows still destitute of leaves; a few snow banks in the 

 meadow, which, however, is in many places yellow with 

 buttercups (Ranunculus). Upon returning, August 10, 

 I could nofr find young birds, though in the preceding 

 year on July 16 they were large enough to tumble out 

 of a nest as I approached it. This shows the difference 

 in seasons in these high mountains consequent upon 

 difference in snowfall. When the weather does become 

 favorable vegetation grows with an astonishing rapidity 

 in the long days of June and July, hardly waiting for 

 the snow to melt; in fact, sometimes bursting through 

 it, and about the middle of July, 1880, I was agreeably 

 surprised to find on the top of the mountain about two 

 miles north of Blood's, at a height of nearly 9,000 feet, 

 a patch of an acre or two of the seemingly delicate Clay- 

 tonia carolinensis (var.?) in perfect flower standing in 

 compact snow three or four inches deep, a part of the 

 previous winter's product. Where the snow was so 

 deep that it covered them they were also flowering, with 

 a vacant cylindrical space about an inch in diameter 

 immediately around them and a thin, icy, bubble-like 

 cover on the surface; in reality a miniature hot-house. 



Heiishaw, 1879. As almost everywhere throughout 

 the west, this sparrow occurs along the east slope in 

 great numbers during the migrations. It is also numer- 

 ous in these mountains in summer. 



Fort Klamath. Wittich, Nutt. Bull., iv, 165. Nu- 

 merous; specimens April 26, 1875, April 29, 1878. 



