96 THE CONDOR Vol. XIX 



stripes marking the sand bars, while across the Bay the strong blue outline of 

 Mt. Hebo and the Coast Range to the south, often seen with white clouds above 

 them, made easily surmounted barriers over which the mist crept in from the 

 ocean. 



i^we were close to the ocean and the rainy season was not yet over, the 

 mist seemed to be always creeping up from the sea to spread over the moun- 

 tains, and from the fern field there were ever changing effects of fog between 

 the adjacent inland ridges, wisps of fog rising lazily like smoke among the 

 trees or floating off and getting caught in the tree tops. Even the weather 

 prophet too): note of it — "If the fog goes up, it'll rain; if it goes down, it'll 

 clear," the saying was quoted. The strong invigorating ocean breeze that came 

 to the fern field every afternoon bringing the voices of Gulls from the shore, 

 03i clear days was tempered by the warm sunshine that, resting on the bracken 

 brought out their delicious fragrance. 



On the borders of the fern field were small groves of young conifers, where 

 Thrushes and other birds that found food in the open could retire to safe nest- 

 ing places. From these groves, in one of which the family of Screech Owls roost- 

 ed in the day time, reaching out over the bracken were rugged, prickly, long- 

 fingered Sitka spruces, and hemlocks with their gracefully drooping branches 

 hung with tiny cones, that bowed like ostrich plumes in the wind. In strong 

 sunshine the exquisite light green tips of the new foliage made the dark sha- 

 dowed trees look fairly green jewelled, as beautiful as flowers. At the foot of 

 the fern field passing birds could gather a plentiful harvest of salmon berries. 



Over the clearing Vaux Swifts were occasionally seen hurrying by, and 

 after the familiar peent of a Nighthawk had been heard by the shore, two of 

 the birds were seen flying around up in the fog at sunset. The sweet-voiced 

 Willow Goldfinches were often seen loitering around the fern field. The fe- 

 male was in darker dress than the eastern Goldfinch but the male as strikingly 

 yellow and black as any of his tribe, the yellow so bright that it was surprising 

 to have it fade to white against the green of a hemlock. The joyous flight song 

 was heard over the fern field about the middle of June and one of a pair seen with 

 nesting material in her bill stopped to pick at the partly ripe head of a bull 

 thistle. When the birds get a billful of unmanageable down, as from a clothes- 

 line, it was reported with assurance, they fly up to a hemlock branch and stick 

 it together by rubbing it against the soft hemlock gum ! On the last day of 

 June a Goldfinch was heard singing at length and with happy emotion. Per- 

 haps a nestfull of eggs had hatched ! Other late builders, Waxwings, with raised 

 crest and clear yellow tail band, were seen on a red huckleberry bush where they 

 were apparently feeding. 



One day as I sat among the bracken a Rufous Hummer with a squeak and 

 a whirr came whirtling low over — me ? — or was it over my neighborhood where 

 some invisible feathered lady was in hiding? When a male was peaceably sit- 

 ting on top of a small hemlock, another, possibly a rival, dived down at him, 

 hurtling him off at a wide angle. Several were chasing after each other one 

 day with nothing to indicate the merits of the case, and twice, greatly to my 

 surprise I discovered a Hummingbird in hot pursuit of an inoffensive Swal- 

 low — such heights of arrogance may even a pinch of feathers attain ! 



But though many an attractive bird was seen flying about over the green 

 bracken, the one whose song and presence harmonized best with the fragrant 

 fern field was the Russet-backed Thrush. Two were singing their sweet mu- 



