BIRDS OP THK PACIFIC DISTRICT. 149 



ing season. Summit Meadows, Donner Pass, June 24, 

 1885, a pair beginning nest; July 7, nest and nearly 

 fresh eggs, both on the ground, but I have found nests 

 in willows. Blood's, July 9, 1880, still unmated; wil- 

 lows still destitute of leaves; a few snow banks in the 

 meadow, which, however, is in many places yellow with 

 buttercups (Ranunculus). Upon returning, August 10, 

 I could not find young birds, though in the preceding 

 year on July 16 they were large enough to tumble out 

 of a nest as I approached it. This shows the difference 

 in seasons in these high mountains consequent upon 

 difference in snowfall. When the weathei: does become 

 favorable vegetation grows with an astonishing rapidity 

 in the long days of June and July, hardly waiting for 

 the snow to melt; in fact, sometimes bursting through 

 it, and about the middle of July, 1880, I was agreeably 

 surprised to find on the top of the mountain about two 

 miles north of Blood's, at a height of nearly 9,000 feet, 

 a patch of an acre or two of the seemingly delicate Clay- 

 tonia carolinensis (var.?) in perfect flower standing in 

 compact snow three or four inches deep, a part of the 

 previous winter's product. Where the snow was so 

 deep that it covered them they were also flowering, with 

 a vacant cylindrical space about an inch in diameter 

 immediately around them and a thin, icy, bubble-like 

 cover on the surface; in reality a miniature hot-house. 



Henshaw, 1879. As almost everywhere throughout 

 the west, this sparrow occurs along the east slope in 

 great numbers during the migrations. It is also numer- 

 ous in these mountains in summer. 



Fort Klamath. Wittich, Nutt. Bull., iv, 165. Nu- 

 merous; specimens April 26, 1875, April 29, 1878. 



