28 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



pair of bush-tits, cousins of the chickadees, came 

 with one of their big families ; California towhees 

 often appeared sitting quietly on the branches ; 

 linnets were always stopping to discuss something 

 in their emphatic way ; clamorous blue jays rushed 

 in and set the small birds in a panic, but seeing 

 me quickly took themselves off ; and a pair of 

 wary woodpeckers hunted over the sycamore 

 trunks and worked so cautiously that they had 

 finished excavating a nest only just out of my 

 sight on the other side of the wren tree trunk 

 before I seriously suspected them of domestic 

 intentions. 



One day, when watching at the tree, a great 

 brown and black lizard that the children of the 

 valley call the ' Jerusalem overtaker ' came 

 worming down the side of an oak that I often 

 leaned against. The rough bark seemed such a 

 help to it that I imagined the wrens had done 

 wisely in choosing a smooth sycamore to build 

 in. I looked narrowly at their nest hole with 

 the thought in mind and saw that the birds had 

 another point of vantage in the way the trunk 

 bulged at the hole it did not seem as if a large 

 lizard could work itself up the smooth slippery 

 rounding surface, however much given to eggs for 

 breakfast. But in the West Indies lizards walk 

 freely up and down the marble slabs, so it is dan- 

 gerous to say what they cannot do. 



Billy had a surprise one day greater than mine 



