130 SONG-BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
SONG-BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
BY LYMAN BELDING. 
Tue Pacific Coast has many fine feathered songsters, 
The Western Meadow Lark with its numerous. loud, 
sweet and always cheery songs, which are heard in all the 
agricultural districts, in sunshine and shower, in summer 
and winter, is a general favorite. 
The well known Mocking-bird needs no praise. The 
Western Robin has a song like the Robin of the Atlantic 
Coast, with its habit of singing late and early, but finds its 
summer home in the pines and firs of the mountains instead 
of the orchards and groves near human habitations. The 
Russet-backed Thrush, Black-headed Grosbeak, Californian 
Thrasher, Louisiana Tanager, Bullock’s Oriole, Townsend’s 
Soltaire, three species of Purple Finches, and several other 
birds are excellent singers. 
Few birds please and interest me more than Cassin’s 
Vireo. Its notes are few but greatly varied in expression, 
always sweet and tender, in perfect harmony with its char- 
acter as I know, having often noted its endearing manners 
and devotion to its mate during nesting-time. 
The Cafion Wren, swift-running, rock-bound mountain 
streams, high mountains, dark blue cafions, sunlit peaks, and 
trout are, to my mind, inseparable. Its loud descending 
whistle, heard in this, its favorite environment, leaves a last- 
ing impression. 
The American Dipper has a loud musical song which it 
utters while at rest and occasionally while flying rapidly up 
