74 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Sek. 



great areas, destroying all young forest growth in their paths. 

 The timbered country for the most part being extremely rocky 

 and covered by lava and other volcanic ejecta, with none too 

 plenteous a rainfall, the growth of a new forest is a slow pro- 

 cess. Even the ceanothus brush has difficulty in many places 

 in getting started, and the major part of the deforested area is 

 a sad and disheartening sight. 



In much of this there is but little bird life. The waters from 

 the melting snows on Mt. Shasta sink through the porous rock 

 and springs are scarce. Fortunately, some of these waters are 

 checked by impervious strata and, collecting beneath the sur- 

 face, produce some good live streams, which are utilized to 

 water the meadows that have been formed in low spots, where 

 Wilson's Snipe and the Nevada Red-winged Blackbird take 

 advantage of the moisture and the long green grasses in which 

 to hide their nests. 



We were fortunate in finding a small valley about half a 

 mile southeast of Weed, apparently coming straight down from 

 Mt. Shasta, that had been spared by fire and still had some 

 fair-sized forest trees in it, opening out into a meadow with 

 a small stream running through. 



Here we found birds quite plentiful. The weather was cold 

 and windy, but the birds were commencing to breed. While 

 the fox sparrows, in this case the Yosemite Fox Sparrow, are 

 not found nesting below 4500 or 5000 feet even as far north 

 as Plumas County (California), here they were numerous in 

 a patch of heavy brush at not over 3600 feet altitude, in com- 

 pany with the Green-tailed Towhee. The fox sparrow breed- 

 ing on Mt. Shasta has been previously recorded as the Thick- 

 billed Fox Sparrow. C. H. Townsend, in his "Field Notes on 

 the Mammals, Birds and Reptiles of Northern California" 

 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., X, 1887, p. 220), states that the 

 Thick-billed Sparrow was "Common about Mount Shasta in 

 summer, where it frequented the chaparral tracts and the bushes 

 scattered through the pine country." C. Hart Merriam, in 

 North American Fauna No. 16, 1899, p. 126, also mentions 

 this form as found on Shasta. 



Several specimens were taken by us near Weed and a num- 

 ber were evidently nesting or preparing to nest in some very 



