The Clark Nutcracker 



birds as musicians. Two of them got out their little toy trumpets, 

 pitched about a fifth apart, and proceeded to give us the Sierran reveille: 



hee hee hee, hee hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee. 



hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo 



The notes were really quite musical, and the comparison established of 

 children's tin trumpets was irresistible. The effect produced by the 





Taken in the Tehipile Valley 



Photo by the A ullior 



A HARD NUT TO CRACK 



two birds sounding in different keys was both pleasant and amusing — 

 Merry Christmas in July! The concert lasted two or three minutes, and 

 its conclusion was announced when one of the youngsters shouted Charr 

 (as who should say, Rats!), and burst out of the tree. 



Clark's Nutcracker is the presiding genius of all our higher mountain 

 bodies, including in his regular haunts the pinyon-forested desert ranges, 

 as well as the rugged fastnesses of the central Cordilleras. At the close 

 of the breeding season, and especially in the late summer, the birds have 

 a wider vertical range, pressing the limits of evergreen timber at the 

 lower levels, as well as paying occasional visits to the topmost peaks. 

 There is no migration in the proper sense, but occasional individuals 

 turn up now and then in most unexpected places. For example, a stray 

 bird appeared at Miramar, a fashionable seaside resort near Santa Bar- 

 bara, on the 28th of January, 191 7. And again in the fall of 1919 there 



