THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



13 



A DECEPTIVE BIRD. 



While at Blue Canyon in the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, California, I found on 

 June 18, 1891, a nest with which I was 

 then unfamiliar. It was by a running 

 stream, in ferns, about a foot from the 

 ground, and contained five eggs. 



When I first startled the bird from her 

 eggs she flew into some bushes, and 

 moved away so warily that I found it im- 

 possible, at that time at least, to identify 

 her. 



I returned to the nest toward evening, 

 and, finding the owner away, took up a 

 position behind a log to wait for her. 



Up on the hill a White-headed Woodpecker 

 was rapping, and all the copses rang with 

 the music of the Western Robin, Thick- 

 billed Sparrow and many other song birds 

 of the high mount nns. 



After a little while the bird I waited for 

 came up the creek and flew first to a branch 

 of a tree on the other side of the stream to 

 see that the coast was clear. Then she 

 dropped down hipocritically to a clump of 

 bushes, as though, if she had a nest, it was 

 certainly there; but, watching closely, I 

 soon saw a glimpse of her moving cau- 

 tiously through the brush toward her tiny 

 home in the ferns. 



I was determined to see her this time, 

 and stepped lightl}^ toward the nest, but I 

 was quickly seen by those sharp little eyes, 

 for a moving twig showed me she was slip- 

 ping away again into that convenient patch 

 of brush. 



I paused intently, but there was not a 

 movement. The unknown seemed to pos- 

 sess the power of invisability. But I kept 

 my eyes on that brush tangle, so that 

 at any rate she should not escape me. 

 Then 1 lay down to patientl}^ wait, watch- 

 ing that brush all the while like an Indian. 

 I waited and waited, and was about to give 

 up the game when the clever bird which I 

 was guarding flew into the brush from the 

 other direction ! 



That was a direct insult to ni}- wood- 



craft, but I was rewarded for my patience 

 presently, when she moved toward the 

 nest and slipped into view, a rare sym- 

 phony in color — Macgillivray's Warbler. 



H. R. T. 



WEST COAST NOTES. 



W. Otto Emerson has recently returned 

 from the Yosemite Valley and the Big 

 Trees While in camp one day he shot an 

 Evening Grosbeak, also a Calliope Hummer. 



An article in a popular magazine states 

 that the Geysers in California is the only 

 summer home of the robin outside of the 

 Sierra. The observations of ornithologists 

 in other parts of the State are thus put to 

 shame. 



Does the California bush tit raise more 

 than one brood a year? I have found it 

 among the first to nest, eggs being taken 

 the latter part of March. This year I was 

 surprised to find on June lotJi a new nest 

 with four fresh eggs. 



Mr. Jurgens of El Dorado county, Cal., 

 tells of a curious nesting place of a wren. 

 An old canvas hat, hung on a nail in a de- 

 serted quartz mill, was selected by the wren 

 for a habitation, and there it has raised its 

 young for several successive years. 



A. M. Ingersoll writes from San Diego: 

 "I opened the season of '93 on February 19th 

 with ^ Western Horned Owl and closed 

 it on July 2nd with 9-2 Least Tern and 3-3 

 Snowy Plover. I say closed it, for I do not 

 expect to gj out again until next year." 



The unreliability of "lay'' testimony 

 (this does not here refer to nesting) on ques- 

 tions of a bird's distribution, is well shown 

 in the case of the Mocking-bird, which is 

 rarely seen in Northern California. The 

 California Thrasher is known in many places 

 as the "Mocking-bird," and recently I 

 heard some marvelous things in San Benito 

 county about a "Spanish Mocking-bird." 

 The latter turned . out to be the Russet- 

 backed Thrush. T. 



