To \oung Ornithotogisis of California. 22() 



about ten years ago, and during that year or more I correctly 

 identified very nearly all of our land birds, the most of which I had 

 not previously known. Volume ix Pacific Rail Road Reports is 

 still (A.D. 1887) a standard valuable work, having the same 

 descriptions, by Prof- Baird, that are found in California Ornithol- 

 ogy, Volume 1, but with fuller explanations and comparisons. 



The splendid work of Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, in five 

 volumes, contains in the last two volumes, much valuable informa- 

 tion concerning Pacific Coast water-birds, from the pen of Dr. J. 

 S. Cooper and others. \ov\ should visit all sorts of localities in 

 search of specimens, and do not fail to explore the denser forests 

 of the Sierra Nevadas. But little work has been done in the 

 his/her Sierras, between latitudes 35^ and 38^. Mr. Henshaw, of 

 Wheeler's Topographical Surveys, was on and about Mount 

 Whitney in October, 1875 or '76 — too late to find all of the sum- 

 mer residents. 



With this exception, I know of no one who has collected birds 

 in the higher parts of this region, excepting at its extremities. 



If you have never seen the Water Ouzel, and all that that im- 

 plies, you can well afford to undertake a journey to these moun- 

 tains. I think this bird does not go as far south as San Diego 

 Countv. Possibly new species may be found between latitudes 35° 

 and 38°. 



You are quite certain to find the rare Syrnium occidentale and 

 the rarer Scops flammeolus, at about 5000 feet altitude. 



When you are out moonlight nights looking for these owls, do 

 not forget your field-glass. If a California Lion (Felis concolor) 

 a short distance from you, surprises you with its characteristic 

 screams, make a note of it. You will remember those peculiar 

 screams even if you have a bad memory and an indifferent ear for 

 music; but, as Dr. Merriam in Mammals of the Adirondacks. ex- 

 presses doubt of their screaming at all, you will do well to record 

 some of the circumstances connected with the screams, for example, 

 if your hair "stands on end" say so; or, if otherwise, state other- 

 wise, unless you are entirely bald. If, at the time, you are alone 

 up in a tree, watching a deer lick as well as collecting owls, do 

 not be in a hurry to get down and go to camp if you are a mile or 

 more from it, and the route to it is through the pathless woods 

 with plenty of undergrowth. Any motion on your part might 

 frighten jj/<?2^r lion away. I can say, in all seriousness, there is no 

 grander excitement than that afforded by collecting alone in a 

 dense forest where large game is abundant. To get the best re- 

 sults, the collector must be silent and listen, and if he is near a 

 deer lick, and on the ground, a position on the lee side of the 

 lick should be selected. This in summer in the Sierras is almost 

 invariably the west side, the wind then blowing, usually, after sun- 

 set, from the mountain's top toward the hot San Joaquin and 

 Sacramento Valleys. 



