Western Vesper Sparrows (Pooecetes gramlneus confinls), which haunt these 

 upland pastures or their fringing groves of aspen. Before we forsook the pines 

 we took an early morning reconnoissance, and William climbed up, squirrel- 

 fashion, by clinging to the rough bark of a gigantic yellow pine which held in a 

 hollow, some forty feet up, two eggs of the Lewis Woodpecker {Asyndesmus 

 iewls'i). It seemed a shame to repeat such an arduous climb, but the young man 

 felt rewarded when, upon the return journey, the prospect yielded a perfect set 

 of seven eggs. 



Our emergence upon the edge of the sage-clad basin which holds Mono 

 Lake in its central grasp was signalized by the finding in a greasewood {Sarcobatus 

 vermlculatus) of a nest and three eggs of a supposed Wright Flycatcher. The 

 situation, a mile and a half from timber and in the midst of perfectly typical 

 vegetation, was unique in my experience, and led to a more methodical search 

 of this greasewood section upon our return June 7th. We found a supposed 

 colony containing half a dozen pairs of flycatchers, and this yielded us three 

 more sets of eggs, each of four, and a handsome series of photographs of sitting 

 birds. The nests are invariably in greasewood, instead of sage. They are very 

 bulky, much more so than nests of typical wrlghti at timberhne, and they are so 

 placed that they afford both a measure of concealment from the sun and an out- 

 look upon passing insects. The female forages occasionally for food, although 

 the male sometimes attends her, and is altogether more free with his attentions 

 than would be the case with the mountain birds. 



Arrived at Mono Lake, we are not content with a somewhat prosaic lit- 

 toral fauna, but must signal across by means of auto lamp flashes to Mr. W. D. 

 McPherson, the czar of Paoha Island. This gentlemen, although a perfect 

 stranger to us, very obligingly comes after us in a wheezy launch and extends, in 

 the name of science, the courtesies of his island principality. As we cross, we are 

 regaled by stories of the lake's treacheries, of sudden winds and overwhelming 

 waves. The water in Mono Lake is intensely alkaline, so that, while it would be 

 impossible to sink in it, death by strangulation would be easy enough and an 

 almost certain result of a spill in a storm. The lake harbors no fish, but its waters 

 are crowded with a small "Branchipus-like Phyllopod" {Auct. Professor W. K. 

 Fisher) ; and these pale ghosts, a million to a pound, not only supply the needs 

 of more than a thousand California Gulls (Larus calif or nic us) at breeding time, 

 but of an unknown number of California Eared Grebes [Colynibus nlgricollis 

 callfornlcus) and tens of thousands of migrant waterfowl, in season. 



Paoha Island, centrally situated' has a land surface of something over 

 two square miles. It is low, sharply rolling, in the main, with a central ridge 

 showing bold escarpments. It is composed chiefly of stratified volcanic ash, 

 variously bent, warped, and faulted. The northern third of the island, however, 

 is of igneous rock, the extreme northern portion being a horrible welter of re- 

 cently cooled lava of a reddish black color; while the extreme eastern tip, known 

 as the "hot rocks," still emits steam and warms the adjacent waters. 



Mr. McPherson, who has recently acquired this holding through home- 

 stead and other rights, intends to develop it as a goat ranch, and for this it is 

 admirably suited, for it has not only artesian waters, about twenty miners 

 inches, of an excellent quality, but it is more than half covered with a variety of 

 vegetation, chiefly Atrlplex of several varieties, among which A. confertlfolla 

 stands first, both for abundance and forage value. 



Negit Island, with an area of perhaps three-quarters of a mile, lies a few 

 hundred yards west of Paoha Island, and is also of recent volcanic origin. Its 

 eastern aspect slopes gently to the water's edge; and it is here, as well as on the 

 neighboring portions of Paoha Island, that the California Gulls nest, to the num- 

 ber of a thousand pairs. We were a little too late for good nesting, since chicks 

 were beginning to appear; but we saw enough to assure us that the colonies were 

 composed of a vigorous mixed stock, rather than an inbred type like that of 

 Larus occldenlalis, for example, found on the Farallon Islands. 



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