THE


Avicultural Magazine


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY

FOR THE STUDY OF

FOREIGN & BRITISH BIRDS

IN FREEDOM 8c CAPTIVITY


Third Series. —Vol. XIII.—No. 7 —All rights reserved. JULY, 1922.



ABOUT BIRDS IN NORTH AMERICA


By F. E. Blaauw


(Continued fromp. 68.)


Close by the town of Los Angeles is Mount Lowe, which is easily

ascended by a dental railway which creeps almost perpendicularly

against the mountain. I was very much struck by the peculiar aspect

of the vegetation against this mountain, as the leaves of both trees and

shrubs and bushes were mostly of a silvery hue. So, for instance, the

needles of the Douglas pines (Pseudosuga douglasi macrocarpa ) were

silvery blue, greyish or bluish were the leaves of the lupins (bushy as

well as herbaceous ones), and silvery were the leaves of innumerable

other things. To match these silvery leaves, a great many flowers were

of a pale yellow or delicate lavender blue. I saw very few birds during

this excursion, and the only interesting species I noted was a specimen

of Sayornis nigricans, a nearly all-black bird with little white, which

looks like a long-bodied and long-legged Flycatcher.


Another excursion, easily made by electric tram, is to Palissade

on the sea-coast. For a couple of miles along the coast is a promenade

or drive, which overlooks the sea and is planted as a garden. I was

rather surprised to see there a family of black Molothrus Starlings

(M. obscurus), which consisted of a pair of old birds and several young

ones, which were carefully attended to and fed by the parents. I was

much surprised to see this, as I had been told that this species was

parasitica] and laid its eggs in the nest of other birds. One of the

young birds was apparently rather feeble, and not able to fly well,

and when I picked it up the old birds flew round me greatly concerned

for the safety of their child. I am at a loss to explain how this



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