148 



THE OOLOGIST 



or bush and pours forth a very beauti- 

 ful song, perhaps to its sitting mate 

 somewhere nearby. 



Along the river was a space on 

 each side that was quite level coun- 

 try and in some portions the trees 

 grew to great heights and from same 

 came many bird notes, all of which 

 I was familiar with, for I had spent 

 several seasons in other sections of 

 the Sierras, hearing a "buzz" of a 

 Hummer I was all atention and soon 

 located its nest about twenty feet 

 from the ground in an open pine, 

 climbing to the nest I found it to con- 

 tain young about one half grown, 

 thus I became acquainted with nest 

 ing of the Calliope Hummer, that mid- 

 get of the bird world. 



I remained about the nest for sev- 

 eral minutes and could see no difier- 

 ence in actions of this bird than its 

 larger cousin, Anna Hummer of the 

 valleys, the nest was also very simi- 

 lar and quite as large though the bird 

 is very much smaller. 



As I crossed a small meadow, from 

 under a log in a dry ditch bed a bird 

 flushed which I recognized as Thur- 

 bers Junco (Junco thurberi) and in a 

 slight hollow under the log was its 

 nest and four fresh eggs. For vari- 

 ation in markings of eggs I believe 

 this bird has all others on the run, so 

 this set was collected but the nest 

 was such a poor affair that I could not 

 save it, in fact few nests of the Junco 

 are well made, uusally just some dry 

 grass with lining of some finer grass 

 and in some cases I have seen just a 

 rim of grass about a hollow in the 

 ground and again when the ground 

 was covered with snow I found a 

 nest in the end of a box and it was a 

 substantial affair, well built of a 

 quantity of grass and well lined with 

 fine grass and some hair. Occasional- 

 ly a pair Tvill build in a tree and then 

 it constructs a well built nest. 



Western Tanagers. Cassins Purple 

 Finches, Olive-sided Flycatchers. 

 Ruby-crowned Kinglets and black- 

 throated Gray Warblers sang from 

 the higher trees while in lower trees 

 and bushes came notes of Audubons, 

 Tolmie and Golden Pileolated War- 

 blers, Trails, Flycatchers and others, 

 and from the hillsides came that loud 

 call of the Mountain Chickadee and 

 the plaintive note of the Western 

 Wood Pewee came from various sec- 

 tions of tlie woods. 



In some vines close to the river I 

 located a nest and four eggs of the 

 Tolmie Warbler but as eggs seemed 

 to be badly incubated I left them in 

 the loosely constructed nest of gras^; 

 and bark strips where they rested on 

 lining of fine grass and roots, about 

 ten feet away where the limbs grew 

 cut from the body of a large tree a 

 nest and large young of Audubons 

 was located, on visiting this place 

 later the young Audubons were found 

 dead under the tree and eggs of the 

 Tolmie were gone. 



Seeing a Red-breasted Nuthatch 

 enter a cavity about twelve feet up in 

 a dead cottonwood I climbed to same 

 and opened to see its contents and 

 noted several small young and as I 

 saw the parents feeding these many 

 times afterwards, I am quite sure that 

 this brood was safely brought to ma- 

 turity. 



As evening came on I wandered 

 back towards the hotel and reached 

 same just before a heavy thunder 

 storm came on, 1 had put in over eight 

 hours afield after a sleepless night and 

 my enthusiasm about the locality was 

 not over high. 



June 15th. Having heard a number 

 of Kinglets along the river in the high 

 trees I determined to locate a nest 

 today and accordingly spent much of 

 the day watching the birds and suc- 

 ceeed in locating one building a nest 



