F. E. Blaamo—About Birds in North America



185



The evening found me at Wawona, where I was to spend a couple of

days. Wawona is an hotel, and it is surrounded by glorious trees

of the conifer family, which, however, are treated with but scant respect.

There is a stream not very far from the hotel, and on the stones that

emerged out of the water I saw again a specimen of Sayornis nigricans,

which was busy catching insects. Near the river was some low brush¬

wood that was partly fenced, for some purpose or other, and on that

fence my sight was gladdened by a family of plumed or painted Quails

(Callipepla picta), which are called Mountain quails, I believe, by the

inhabitants. The painted Quail is a rare bird in captivity in Europe,

and I was extremely glad to see it in its native haunts.


A Red Finch, somewhat shaped like a big Linnet ( Carpodacus mexi-

canus frontalis), and called there the House Finch, was rather a common

bird. T also met one single male example of the Bluebird ( Scalia wilsoni),

and once or twice a little Yellow Warbler. In a thin wood, against a

mountain, I met a family of Steller’s Jays, the parents busy feeding their

fully fledged offspring. .Steller’s Jay is a most beautiful bird. It is blue

with a black crested head, which is again ornamented by a metallic blue

front. A little farther I also came across a family of Californian Blue

Jays, which are crestless and have a whitish throat. Blue Jays of the

different species are conspicuous birds in the Western States, as they

have very little fear of man, and they certainly contribute much to the

embellishment of the woods. Sitting on the ground against the slope

of a small cut in the mountain, I again saw a couple of plumed Quails

that were hiding under bushes only a few yards distant.


I also met a few times a small black and white Woodpecker with

scarlet head 'and upper breast. There are admirable trees in the

immediate neighbourhood of the Wawona hotel. Not forty yards away

from it is a splendid old specimen of Libocedrus decurrens. The bark of

old trees of this species grows heavy folds and is of a red colour, and

the whole tree reminds one very much of a Wellingtonia on a smaller

scale.


Near the river are some striking specimens of Finns lambertiana. A

peculiarity of this pine is that its top branches are of irregular or

unequal length, so that it resembles a spruce of which the branches

would be almost horizontal and unequal in length. The cones are



