THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 97 
Coast strip, the heavy cushions of brownish-green moss grow mainly 
on the deciduous trees, such as the alder and maple, probably because 
the bark of the coniferous trees is chemically unsuited to the nourish- 
ment of moss. 
The gardens and orchards of McKenzie Bridge during my stay in 
1914 attracted a few families of familiar dooryard birds, which sang 
unawed by the shadow of the great forest. In the vegetable garden of 
the Log House one of the numerous Western Chipping Sparrows of the 
neighborhood trilled monotonously, Rusty Song Sparrows gave their 
rich contralto call full of home content and happiness, and a Western 
Robin was seen flying by on important business. Close by, in the 
alders and willows bordering the river a small Flycatcher, presumably 
trailli, fed its young and sat in the sun calling “pre-deer,” while in 
the orchard a pair of greenish Swainson Vireos went about in the 
sunshine, the songster of the family sitting in a willow with head up, 
white line over the eye showing, and throat feathers parting as he 
sang his modest lay beginning with its stereotyped tir-rut-ty; while 
in the river thicket a Russet-backed Thrush, taking me back to the 
fragrant bracken fields of Tillamook Bay on the coast, sang the sweet 
musical song that dominated the morning chorus. The red head of 
the Western Tanager was often seen projecting his black-winged 
yellow body across the garden and one day he was found picking about 
in the moss of a dead branch, flying off with his bill full across the 
river, where he doubtless had a nest. 
An occasional white-spotted stone along the shallows of the river 
told of the presence of the Water Ouzels, whose hunting grounds 
were found farther up the McKenzie, and a Kingfisher was sometimes 
seen flying swiftly up or down the river. Now and then Vaux Swifts 
and a flock of Swallows were seen in the sky, and for some time two 
pairs of Pacific Nighthawks were to be found at sunset hunting, cavort- 
ing and booming in courtship play over the prairie park across the 
road from the Log House, sometimes, under cover of the twilight 
being seen to take a turn close around the kitchen, where they doubt- 
less helped dispose of the abundant house flies. Along the fields and 
fences Western Bluebirds sometimes flew up, and a band of yellow- 
eyed Brewer Blackbirds hunted for insects, at night coming to roost 
in an evergreen on the road by the Log House. 
The songster most in evidence about the house, one not seen at 
Tillamook Bay, was the Lazuli Bunting, whose beautiful blue coat and 
pinkish chest band gave a surprisingly bright touch of color to the 
somber landscape. His profuse song, very similar in character to that 
of his eastern relative, the Indigo Bunting, given indifferently from a 
telephone wire or the top of an apple tree or conifer, begins with 
some bright clear notes with a lilt in them, and growing faster burrs 
and wings around with several repetitions of a flat concluding 
cha-cha-cha. 
Where was the nest? When I went out to watch the pair from 
the bank above the river bottoms I was surprised to have the nonde- 
script brown mother bird fly down close beside me, ignoring my 
presence in her absorbed search for insects. Poor little seed eater 
forced to supply insects for a clamorous brood of carnivorous nest- 
lings! She sat around looking amusingly bewildered for some time, 
but finally catching sight of a diminutive insect flying low over the 
ground, gave chase as if life depended on a gnat, twisting and turning 
in a way that would have done credit to a born Flycatcher. Victorious, 
up she rose, taking a straight course over the haycocks to the bushes 
under the trees by the river. Following after, I hunted vainly through 
