306 CALIFORNIA BIRD STUDIES 



in its setting of great conifers and snow-ridged mountains 

 it stands, in my experience, preeminent. 



The morning we sailed for Tallac was absolutely calm 

 and, as the steamer glided over the mirror-like surface of 

 the lake, the bottom could be seen at astonishing depths. But 

 when, some days later, we returned, a sixty-mile-an-hour 

 gale created a sea which played havoc with most of the pas- 

 sengers and forced the one hundred and twenty -five foot 

 steamer to abandon part of her route. 



At Tallac, White-crowned Sparrows sang plaintively in 

 the pines near the hotel, and Juncos trilled and twittered in 

 the shrubbery. Later, I saw near Tallac a single American 

 Magpie, (Pica pica hudsonia), ornithological evidence that 

 I was on the eastern slope of the Sierras. Here one takes a 

 stage for the five-mile ride through the woods around the 

 border of Fallen Leaf Lake, to Price's Camp, at an altitude 

 of about 6,300 feet. 



From this point, there are a score or more of mountain 

 lakes to be reached within a few hours. Mt. Tallac, snow- 

 capped, towers overhead, and Glen Alpine, with its fine 

 trees, dashing stream and water-falls, lies at the back of the 

 camp. 



The vicinity of the camp itself is as favorable a place for 

 bird study as one could ask for. Thick-billed Fox Spar- 

 rows, (Passerella iliaca megarhyncha), were here the most 

 conspicuous singing birds, and one could not ask for a more 

 musical, cheerful songster. The loud, single whistle of the 

 Mountail Quail was a distinctly new note, strikingly unlike 

 the sit-right-down of the Valley Quail. The birds called 

 from the dense conifers and were exceedingly difficult to 

 see. When alarmed, they carried their long crest feathers 

 erect, a singular ornament, but one which was quite in keep- 

 ing with their graceful alertness. 



Green-tailed Towhees, with their mewing call and bright 

 song; Western Tanagers (Piranga ludoviciana) , uttering 

 their clean cut clit-tuck and unmistakably tanagrine chant; 



