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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



EARLY SUMMER BIRDS IN THE YOSEMITE VALLEY 



By J. Grin NELL. 



When the visitor first enters Yosemite Valley along 

 the stage road from El Portal his attention is wholly- 

 absorbed by the grandeur and variety of the scenery. 

 Even the habitual bird-observer is distracted from his 

 favorite objects of scrutiny; and doubtless this accounts 

 for my own impression at the end of my first day in the 

 Yosemite, that birds were few in species and individuals. 

 But as the days go by, and the wonder inspired by the 

 roaring waterfalls and towering cliffs begins to sink into 

 the commonplace, the faculties become freed for the con- 

 templation of various other natural features of the region, 

 and these among both plants and animals present them- 

 selves in multifarious plenitude. Each day's tramp, in 

 whatever direction, brings additions to the observer's list 

 of birds, until at the end of a ten days' stay an astonish- 

 ing total is reached, especially as compared with that first 

 impression. Then, too, certain places are discovered 

 where particular species are to be found in notable num- 

 bers ; so that the conclusion reached is that in abundance 

 and variety of its bird life Yosemite is at the very least 

 as well provided for as any other part of the West of 

 similar climatic and floral qualifications. 



In the immediate vicinity of any of the camps on the 

 valley floor the bird which first gains the notice of the 

 newly arrived observer is the Western robin — so like his 

 relative of the Atlantic states, that only actual compari- 

 son of specimens suffices to distinguish them. Robins hop 

 familiarly along the paths between the rows of tents, or 

 dash in heedless flight close past the many people. Often 

 a robin will permit an approach as close as ten feet, espe- 

 cially when foraging on the greensward of the meadows 



