446 NOTES ON THE 
live oak, and apparently alone. Listening I soon heard the semi- 
distant answer, and desiring to secure both male and female, 
I deferred securing it till it flew, which although disappointing 
me for the time, gave me my first opportunity to see its flight. 
I patiently but cautiously followed them until rewarded by 
securing them. They were shy and nervous but not remark- 
ably so. I wasa little too anxious to get so rare a species to 
make all the observations I otherwise would have made, but 
other occasions gave me ample opportunity todo so. Athough 
shy at this season their manner did not impress me with the 
idea that in summer at breeding time they would be so, and hence 
Iwas not dissappointed at Dr. Cooper’s subsequent report of 
their coming about dwellings in cold weather as well as Dr. 
Suckly’s statement that in Washington Teritory aftera fall of 
snow they become approachable enough ‘‘for any ordinary shot 
to obtain a dozen specimens in a forenoon.” I think that while 
by no means a dull bird they are less pronounced in vigor and 
style of action than our Eastern Robin. They leave Californiain 
the latter part of March and migrate northward to breed. I can- 
not doubt that some of them seek by elevation in the proximate 
mountains what the principal part do by latitude, notwith- 
standing that Dr. Cooper failed to find any in the Sierra Nevada 
summits in September in a latitude but little north of San 
Francisco. They return to the valleys of California in October 
and November, frequently in company with the Eastern Robin, 
- when they are most easily obtained. Their flight does uot 
differ materially from the kindred species, only a little less of 
the ‘there I am” boldness of the other. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Fourth quill longest; third and fifth a little shorter; second 
much longer than sixth; tail nearly even, the lateral feather 
shorter; above, rather dark bluish-slate; axillaries plumbeous, 
with white at base, and under wing coverts plumbeous, broadly 
tipped with white parts generally, a patch on the upper eyelids 
continuous with a stripe behind it along the side of the head 
and neck, the lower eyelids, two bands across the wing coverts 
and the edges of the quills in part, rufous orange-brown; middle 
of belly white; sides of the head and neck continuous with a 
broad pectoral transverse band, black; most of the tail feathers 
with a terminal patch of brownish-white; bill black; feet yellow. 
Female more olivaceous above; the white of the abdomen 
more extended; the brown beneath paler; the pectoral band 
obsolete. 
Length, about 10 inches; wing, 5; tail, nearly 4; tarsus, 1.25, 
Habitat, Pacific coast of North America. 
