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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



that call and shout and make merry in the pines, that 

 descend upon your camp with insolent nonchalance and 

 help themselves to your stores without so much as by 

 your leave, that flirt and quarrel with one another by 

 turns, and fight with every other bird passer-by. They 

 are gay and careless vagabonds, yet withal captivating 

 with their very audacity. The fore part of the body is 

 of a dark sooty brown color, the rear parts are dark 

 blue, lit up by a brighter shade of blue on the black- 

 barred wings and tail, and with streaks of blue on the 

 blackish-brown head. 



In striking contrast to these boisterous mad-cap camp 

 followers, is that sedate exotic, the western tanager. The 

 colors of the male are so gay that he can well afford 

 the air of simple dignity which he assumes. You may 

 know him at once by his canary yellow plumage splashed 

 with red or crimson on the head and neck, by his black 

 back, wings, and tail, and the two yellow bars on 

 the wings. He is about the size of a large sparrow. 

 A retiring frequenter of the forest leafage, he neverthe- 

 less comes into the open about camp and in his quiet 

 splendor makes himself very much at home. His mate 

 is soberly attired in olive greenish and yellowish. The 

 characteristic abbreviated call-note of these birds may 

 be heard in the valley at all hours of the day; the song 

 less frequently. 



Another faithful haunter of the camp and of all pleas- 

 ant woodland nooks in the valley is the black-headed 

 grosbeak. He is a sturdy, stocky, gaily bedecked spar- 

 row, with thickened bill, as his name implies, and a 

 musical though rather monotonous roundelay which is 

 forever ringing through the pine boughs of a summer 

 day. His black head is cleft by a median line of orange 

 brown; he wears a buffy collar about the back of his 

 neck; his back is black, and his black wings and tail 

 are strikingly varied with markings of white. His rump 

 and breast are of orange brown, the hue brightening 

 to yellow on the belly and wing Hnings, so that alto- 



