CALIFORNIA TREES AND BIRDS 



397 



written of. It is the most brilliant red, 

 tipped with even more brilliant red, if such 

 a thing can be. 



It glows like a living flame in these rather 

 sombre forests. There are, of course, some 

 quiet-colored, nun-like flowers, as the 

 pipsissewa, but they impress one as visitors 

 here and not as natives. 



The ground is quite covered with needles 

 and myriads of the small cones of the fir and 

 spruce. The shapely cones of the sugar-pine 

 are the largest of all the cones and are of a 

 beautiful rich brown color. 



When you desire Nature in her most 

 sweet, most lovely, most charming self, go 

 to the forests of the Coast Range. But 

 when you desire Nature in her most grand, 

 most noble, most inspiring self, go to the 

 forests of the Sierra Range, and you will not 

 be disappointed. 



Eloise J . Roorback. 



Some Birds of the Spring 



IT IS not hard for the resident of the 

 cold Eastern States to tell when spring 

 has come. The melting of the snow, 

 the thawing of the ground, the passing 

 of the ice out of the rivers, and the coming 

 of the birds, all proclaim that winter is over 

 and warmer days are at hand. Though 

 some of the birds are courageous enough to 

 brave the wintry blasts, the majority of 

 them go south until the cold weather is 

 past, when they return to their old haunts 

 in the north and are there heralded with 

 delight, for they are forerunners of warmer 

 weather — harbingers of spring. 



In Southern California, where the sea- 

 sons so merge into one another that it is 

 hard to tell where one ends and the other 

 begins, I doubt me if a person blindfolded 

 and set down in Los Angeles could tell 

 whether it was fall, winter or spring. It 

 might even confuse them to tell whether it 

 was winter or summer, so many of our win- 

 ter days are as warm as our summer ones. 

 Here in California, as in the colder East, the 

 birds proclaim the coming of spring. To 

 the average person, perhaps, they do not 

 mark it so distinctly here as in the East, 

 because there are always birds with us, 

 many species remaining here throughout the 



year and coming commonly about our 

 homes. The mocking birds, the brown 

 towhees, the black phoebes, the goldfinches, 

 housefinches, butcherbirds and blackbirds 

 are daily winter visitors that do not leave 

 with the coming of spring. The white- 

 crowned sparrows and the beautiful Audu- 

 bon warblers are two friendly birds that 

 come to the table set for them in the winter, 

 but leave for northern parts in April, and 

 no matter what the weather, we know that 

 it is spring. Though we are loath to lose 

 our winter visitors, their places are taken 

 by many beautiful birds that come to build 

 their nests and raise their young throughout 

 a long summer. 



Two of the earliest, as well as the love- 

 liest, of our spring arrivals are the orioles. 

 While throughout the East and Middle 

 West the Baltimore and orchard orioles are 

 the two common varieties, the Arizona 

 hooded and Bullocks are the two common 

 Western species in Los Angeles and 

 vicinity. They are both gorgeous birds, the 

 Bullocks resembling the Baltimore oriole, 

 having much the same notes and character- 

 istics. The hooded oriole is, if possible, 

 handsomer than the Bullocks, having the 

 same gay colors. This bird received its 

 name from the yellow patch which covers 

 the entire head and ends in a black spot 

 under the throat. This handsome fellow 

 looks as if he might have thrown a gay 

 mantilla over his head and fastened it under 

 his chin. Though so different from the 

 orchard oriole in coloring, he is said to 

 resemble his Eastern cousin in habits. 



The black-headed grosbeak is another 

 showy bird that appears at about the same 

 time as the orioles. The male has a deep 

 rufous breast, black head, back and wings, 

 the latter marked by conspicuous white 

 bars. Though quite different in coloring 

 from his Eastern cousin, the rose-breasted 

 grosbeak, this Western bird is, in my esti- 

 mation, equally attractive. 



A noisy chattering, a flash of gray and 

 yellow, proclaims the arrival of the Arkan- 

 sas kingbirds. These birds are known to 

 the small boys as "bee-martins," because it 

 was commonly supposed that they ate the 

 bees. We now know that, if anything, it is 

 the drones, not the working bees, that they 

 take. These birds are quite different in color 



