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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



finch family, in which we have already encountered the 

 variegated grosbeak and the streaked song sparrow. But 

 the junco is soberly attired in Quaker gray, turning to 

 brownish on the back; the head and neck black, sharply 

 contrasting on the breast with the white of the under 

 parts. The white outer tail feathers are also a mark 

 of identification for this species, and may always be 

 noticed as the bird takes wing. The junco is a sociable 

 little fellow and may generally be found in company 

 of his own kind. 



One of the most familiar and friendly of the humbler 

 birds about our camp was the chipping sparrow. He 

 has a bright reddish-brown patch on his head, contrast- 

 ing with the blackish forehead. His back is brown, 

 streaked with gray and black and his breast plain ashy 

 gray. His song is a long sustained trill, without variety, 

 but withal the chippy is such a simple confiding little 

 creature that you forgive him for his lack of brilliancy 

 or splendor. 



The reddish brown crown-patch and black forehead 

 of the chipping sparrow would not serve as an infallible 

 mark of identification, for another much less common, 

 and therefore, I suppose, more interesting sparrow of 

 the Yosemite is similarly colored. I refer to the green- 

 tailed towhee, which is quite unlike the demure little 

 camp-follower we have been observing, in that its back 

 is olive-green and its throat pure white, bordered with 

 dark stripes. Its breast, however, is ashy gray, like the 

 chipping sparrows. An inhabitant of the low shrub- 

 bery, it has a sweet and varied song, which may baffle 

 the tyro in bird lore on account of the retiring habits of 

 the minstrel. 



Then there is the gay lazuli bunting, a care-free prince 

 of the underbrush, a little sparrow decked out in brilliant 

 azure, with the breast ruddy brown in contrast, a tireless 

 songster, flitting amid the azaleas and ceonothus and 

 enlivening the groves both with its brilliant livery and 

 its animated roundelay. And in the pine trees carols 



