98



F. E. Blaauw—About Birds in North America



experience agrees with the supposed parasitical habit of these birds !

Along the promenade, which was perhaps from 50 to 100 feet

above the sea-level, very big sandy-brown Martins, with a white spot

on each side of the body, flew' restlessly backwards and forwards with

such rapidity that the eye had difficulty in following them.


From Los Angeles I travelled by train to del Monte, which is a large

hotel in the vicinity of Monterey. It is situated in a finely timbered

park, which for once was well stocked with birds. The first birds

I noted were Californian Crested Quails ( Callipepla californica), which

were seen running from bush to bush and were quite tame. Then there

were numerous families of Junco pinosus, pretty grey birds with black

heads and yellowish bills, which were mostly running along the lawns

caring for their children, which were brown in their first plumage.

Very conspicuous were numerous black and white Woodpeckers of the

Melanerpes family. These birds behaved quite differently from our

white and black Woodpeckers in Europe. To begin with, they were

more on the walks than on the trees, and were often very busy inspecting

the horse droppings ; then for a change they would catch insects on

the wing as nimbly as our Flycatchers. They would also sit on the

roof of the hotel inspecting the passers-by, or inspect the tall stems of

the pines, in which they had driven round holes to conceal nuts, which

formed a favourite article of diet. Then there were Bush Tits

(Psaltriparus minimus ), Crested Tits ( Parus inornatus ), Chickadees

(Pams rufescens), and an occasional Humming Bird (Calypte anna),

which seemed to be mostly of a glossy green as it darted along. On

a small lake in the grounds I noticed some young grey Grebes with

light faces, probably young birds, also slaty-grey Coots with black

heads and light bills. In the bushes round the lake Songsparrows

were singing lustily, and this reminds me of a legend about the Song-

sparrow, which reads as follows : —


When God had created the world and had distributed the birds,

He had forgotten some parts of North America. When He was reminded

of it, He had only very few birds left, and those mostly inconspicuous

ones, and the little Songsparrow, which at the time was not only a

modest but also a silent bird, was amongst the number. The result

was that the country which got him was dissatisfied and said that



