Jan., 1917 BIRDS OF THE HUMID COAST 9 



dent may hear Gulls and Cormorants with one ear and Pileated Woodpeckers 

 and Varied Thrushes with the other. And in this region of the Douglas fir and 

 the long-fingered Sitka spruce, birds that in the Sierra Nevada and Rocky 

 Mountains are encountered only when one has climbed to altitudes well up 

 among the thousands are here found at sea level — birds such as Crested Jays, 

 Olive-sided Flycatchers, Rufous Hummingbirds, Sooty Grouse, and Nuttall 

 Sparrows. 



The Nuttall Sparrows, whose half brothers the White-crowns we had found 

 on their breeding grounds in the high Sierra of California and from 11,000 to 

 11,600 feet in the Rockies of New Mexico, were abundant at sea level on Tilla- 

 mook Bay. In the fishing village of Garibaldi, in June, 1914, they were as 

 familiar as Chipping Sparrows, catching insects along the sidewalks with little 

 regard for passers-by. Across the bay at Bay Ocean — named literally from its 

 two shores — the Nuttall Sparrows sang from the tips of the wind-dwarfed 

 bushes covering the face of the bluff actually overlooking the Pacific. Their 

 song, rich, grave, and uplifted, went well with the strong wind from over the 

 sea, with the wide expanse of ocean, and its horizon line of sky. Below them, 

 while Gulls flew T slowly by, their shadows cast on the sands of the shore and 

 lines of black forms winged their w r ay silently on toward the rocky islets be- 

 yond, from out in the ocean the white-maned sea horses came trooping in, rank 

 on rank, down the length of the shore. 



After severe ocean storms Fulmars and other rare sea birds are found 

 on the beaches, and along the sand-spit beyond Bay Ocean many stray water 

 fowl were seen. Not many miles down the coast, in Netart's Bay, stand the 

 well known picturesque Three Arch Rocks now held by the government as a 

 Bird Reserve for the preservation of their remarkable colonies of water fowl. 

 Moving pictures of these Petrels, Puffins, Gulls, and the myriad Murres that 

 may now nest in security on their native rocks have been taken by Mr. Finley 

 for the educational work of the Oregon Fish and Game Commission ; and Dallas 

 Lore Sharp in his delightful book, "Where Rolls the Oregon," tells of a night 

 spent on the sea-bound rocks among their restless populace. 



In Tillamook Bay there are no rocks large enough to house bird colonies, 

 and in June the only common birds seen about Garibaldi were Gulls and Cor- 

 morants. At low tide at the wharf, where a pair of Kingfishers sometimes came 

 for small fry, diving in the zigzagging reflection of the piles, gray-backed 

 Western Gulls and their confreres gathered familiarly, pluming themselves on 

 the sunlit piles or standing idly on the shore where the fishing boats lay at 

 anchor, and streamers of sun-illumined seaweed floated below the surface. 



The birds made themselves so much at home that the fishermen had to 

 protect their clams and crab boxes from them. One of the men before realiz- 

 ing the necessity had dug a sack of clams and, not wanting to stop to wash 

 and put them in his boat, threw them down on shore, hurrying away to 

 dig another sack full. While he was gone the Gulls came and cleaned out the 

 whole pile, opening the shells and cleaning them so expertly that not a particle 

 of meat was left. As the man remarked philosophically, "That learnt me not 

 to dump them down that way, where they can get a holt on them." Though 

 the Gulls open the blue clam shells without trouble, they cannot open the 

 cockles, the fisherman said, and have to resort to the same expedient that 

 Ravens sometimes do, carrying the shells up into the air from fifty to a hun- 

 dred feet and dropping them so that they break open when they strike the 



