The Gambel Sparrow 



creatures, drabs now, treat him as though he were a hawk or the bearer 

 of a blunderbuss. There are a hundred birds lurking in this copse, but 

 as soon as one of them knows himself discovered, he dashes off like mad, 

 or as though there were a price upon his head. 



Yet these same wild savages will respond to cultivation, after a 

 fashion. To secure the flock pictures shown herewith, we first built 

 a shallow bathing pool of cement sunk flush with the ground, then threw 

 out crumbs for bait. But Mrs. D. soon discovered their fondness for 

 corn meal, and thenceforth the Crown Sparrows became regular pen- 

 sioners at our door. The average daily attendance of these birds was 

 in the thirties, but I have counted as high as 47 feeding at one time 

 within ten feet of the kitchen door. A rank bush of achania, which at 

 first afforded the birds dense cover, and to which they retreated under 

 frequent alarm, soon showed such bad effects from the constant attrition 

 of their tiny feet, that we were obliged to cut it back severely, and so 

 destroy its immediate value as a covert. As it was, the bush was nearly 



Taken at Los Colibris 



Photo by the Author 



FEASTING ON CORN MEAL 



329 



