THE OOLOGIST 



vanced stages of incubation; several 

 Mountain Song Sparrows were seen, 

 but no nests. In a cavity of a tama- 

 rack a nest of tlie Tree Swallow with 

 small young was noticed. Ray, who 

 had gone off in another direction to 

 look after a nest of the Sora, return- 

 ed and we rowed up to a patch of 

 tules where the Yellow-headed Black- 

 birds were nesting. It was impossible 

 to get through the tules, so out we 

 got and found the water from two to 

 four feet deep and in the tules we dis- 

 covered a number of nests of the 

 Yellow head but all the eggs were 

 badly incubated and many contained 

 young; we also found a number of 

 nests of the Black Tern, the nests 

 here being built in a large bunch of 

 tule and not on logs. On the way 

 back we saw several Terns' nests 

 and blackbirds, but mostly with incu- 

 bated eggs. 



Hundreds of White Pelicans were 

 about the lake and to see one of these 

 large birds swimming about several 

 times fooled me into thinking that 

 a small sail boat was coming. Cali- 

 fornia Gulls were also common but 

 neither breed on the marsh but go 

 over to Pyramid lake, where they 

 both nest. While rowing back in 

 some piles out on the lake we found 

 a nest of the Tree Swallow with six 

 eggs in a hole in one of the piles that 

 were formerly used as a wharf, and 

 there were also several nests of the 

 Brewers Blackbird in the piles. 



As it was still light when we return- 

 ed to camrp we secured a ladder and 

 went after the nest of the Kinglet thai 

 Ray had found sometime ago. The 

 nest contained seven fresh eggs and 

 the bird sat close, not leaving the nest 

 till a hand was near, and then she 

 remained in the limb near the nest but 

 made no noise. The male did not 

 show up while we were in the tree. 



On the morning of the 5th we got 



an early start and started for a val- 

 ley between two mountains at an 

 altitude of about 7000 feet; here we 

 expected to find the birds a little 

 later than in the valley. On the way 

 up Ray picked up a set of four White- 

 crowned Sparrows from a nest about 

 three feet up in a small tamarack; I 

 can see no difference from this bird's 

 note than the Nuttalls, so common 

 about San Francisco. 



Following up a mountain stream we 

 saw several Blue-fronted Jays and in 

 the brush along the hillsides we heard 

 the song of the Thick Billed Spar- 

 row and the insect like note of the 

 Brewer's Sparrow. 



We sat down to rest at the edge of 

 the valley near a stream and I noticed 

 a bird climbing from limb to limb 

 of a tree till it disappeared near the 

 top. After we had a little lunch I 

 crossed the stream toward the tree 

 where the bird disappeared and from 

 a bunch of green grass near the 

 creek I flushed a Junco from her nest 

 of five fresh eggs. Climbing the tree I 

 found that I had a nest of the Cas- 

 sin's Purple Finch and three incubat- 

 ed eggs. This nest was 20 feet up in 

 a small tree and about four feet from 

 the body of the tree, and was a frail 

 structure, composed of rootlets and 

 lined with same. Near this tree I 

 found a set of four Audubon's Warb- 

 ler, six feet up in a small Tamarack 

 and in about a half hour's work I had 

 another set of five Audubons and 

 another of five of the Junco, tlie lat- 

 ter being of a type I never saw be- 

 fore, a light whitish ground color 

 marked much like a warbler's egg. 

 After we had worked the valley we 

 started across the high hills towards 

 camp and here we had some very 

 hard climbs. On top of the ridge I saw 

 my first Clark's Nutcracker and they 

 became not uncommon about the hills. 

 It was late when we got back to camp 



