NATURALIST IN CALIFORNIA. 473 



neus) and Chipping Sparrow {Sjpizella socialis), which were 

 wintering there in small flocks. 



Next day I was disgusted to find my specimens damaged 

 by mice, and, on setting a trap, soon secured some which 

 I cannot distinguish, except by a lighter hye, from the 

 common woodmouse of California {Ilesperomys GamheUii). 

 These, with several other rodents, had taken up their resi- 

 dence in the thatched roofs of our adobe quarters. On 

 Christmas eve a little ice formed in the valley, but next 

 morning the Brown Thrush {Harporhynchus crissalis) of 

 this region Avas singing melodiously, and exactly in the style 

 of its cousins east and west, so well known as "False 

 Mockins: Birds." It is another of the dead leaf-colored 

 birds of the western regions, and is as strictly limited to 

 the groves as its pale sandy-hued relative, II. Lecontei, is to 

 the desert shrubbery.* 



The end of the year was cold and stormy for this latitude, 

 so that no additions, except more northern migrants, were 

 obtained among the birds, the most notable being the Ore- 

 gon Snowbird (Junco Oregonus), and a few of the Meadow 

 Lark [Sturnella negleda) , vfith several species of ducks and 

 geese. In January, Swans (Ci/gnus Americanus) also ap- 

 peared for a few days. On Jan. 10th I was both surprised 

 and pleased to obtain a beautiful specimen of the Bohemian 

 Waxwing (Ampelis garrulus), which had wandered so far 

 from the mountains north-eastward, where the species 

 abounds, and, probably driven by storms, had sought a tem- 

 porary refuge iu this far southern latitude. It was a solitary 

 straggler, and even its cousin, A. cedrorum, never appeared 

 there during my residence. 



On the 16th a solitary Mexican Flycatcher {Myiarchus 

 Mexicanus), evidently almost starved, gave a specimen of 

 the summer group of migrants lingering in the valley 



* I may here correct an error caused by the transposition of a line in my last article. 

 "Con-espondiiig in color to the rocks among which it lives," was intended for Ilams's 

 Squirrel, tliough it loould apply pretty well to the Sage Fowl under which it is printed. 



AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 60 



