Some Birds in the High Sierra. i6i 



incredible that so small a bird can produce so penetrating 

 a call. Sitting on the topmost branch of a pine tree, he 

 begins to flute at the break of dawn, between three and 

 four o'clock. There were more inquiries, on the part of 

 High Sierrans, about the de-phoe-de, de-phoe-de, or de- 

 phoe-de-de, of this little fellow than about the note of any 

 other bird. The prevailing call at Lake Merced was a 

 short introductory note followed by an emphatic long one 

 and two short ones. 



On the twenty-third of July we were camped in the 

 Matterhorn Canon. In the morning a medical friend, at 

 whose hands I was undergoing repairs for a little acci- 

 dent in Return Creek Canon, informed me that a rather 

 large and beautiful bird had a nest where his party was 

 encamped. Investigation showed it to be a Sierra Hermit 

 Thrush {Hylochichla guttata sequoiensis) , who, finding 

 himself discovered, was excitedly see-sawing his reddish 

 tail up and down and protesting with an occasional nerv- 

 ous chuck. 



His nest was situated in a small two-leaf pine, only a 

 few feet from the ground. In it were two plain greenish 

 blue eggs. A sleeping bag had been hung on the tree, 

 and men had been moving about almost in contact with 

 the nest. Nevertheless Madame Hermit Thrush con- 

 tinued to occupy her home. But now that she observed 

 attention fixed upon herself, she grew more and more 

 nervous. I obtained two photographs of her in the act 

 of approaching the nest, a rear and a front view. The 

 beady eyes, the prettily mottled breast, and the distin- 

 guished bearing of the bird are easily perceptible. Know- 

 ing the shyness of this species, I feared that she might 

 abandon the nest. I was told that after a few more ap- 

 proaches by campers she flew to a neighboring tree, 

 uttered a few protesting chucks, and then disappeared in 

 the piney wilderness to be seen no more. 



One of my most remarkable experiences occurred at 

 Benson Lake on July 26th. Some ladies of the party had 

 found two half-fledged ruby-crowned kinglets (Regulus 



