300 A Journey Across the Sierras— 8. California. 
morning, and usually more or less distorted. Occasionally in 
the evening, a mirage, in the shape of a town with towers, 
church spires, etc., would appear on the nortliern horizon, 
but never very distinct, or well defined. After two hours' 
travelling through this kind of country, we at last 'reached an 
artesian well, where we halted for lunch, and to rest our tired 
cayuse. Where the water overflowed from the well, a jungly 
mass of tules and brambles had sprung up, the only patch of 
real green within miles, and in this quite a lot of birds were 
nesting. I found nests of the Eed-winged Blackbird, two 
varieties (Agelaeus phoenicrus) and (A. tricolor), the Grey 
Shrike (La)iiiif< hidaririanvii f/ani'jcli) and the King Bird 
(Tyrannus vociferans) . The latter bird gave us an exhi- 
bition of its courage, whilst we were having our lunch. A 
Blue Harrier (Circus hudsonius) having inadvertently ap- 
proached their nest, was set upon by both birds, who made 
the feathers fiy from its head and neck and chased it for over 
a mile. These Flycatchers do a good deal of harm to the, 
apiarists, and I have been more than once implored to shoot 
them by an enraged beekeeper. After lunch our way lay 
through very much the same type of country we had traversed 
in the morning, and we saw more reptiles than birds. Here 
our retriever had a very narrow escape from a rattlesnake, 
and, but that he was startled by the rattle, giving me time 
to slip a shell into the gun, he "would have been done for. As 
it was, he sprang at it just as I pulled the trigger. The shot 
was a snap one, as our horse — as most horses are— was fright- 
ened by the rattle, and my partner had some trouble to keep 
it from boiling. However, the shot blew the snake's lieail oflf 
luckily, thus saving the dog from certain death. It was a big 
snake, having ten rattles. The Mexicans take these snakes alive, 
first inducing them to strike a silk handkerchief, when by a 
sudden movement, they jerk out their fangs, thus rendering 
them harmless. They find a ready sale for these reptiles. I 
once, when skinning a Grebe (Acchmorhi/nchus occidentalis), 
found a pair of fangs J -inch long embedded in the fat. They 
must have come from a very large snake, thus proving that 
they occasionally lose their weapons when striking birds or 
animals too big for them. In irrigated districts or around 
ranches where hogs arc kept, rattle -snakes arc now scarce, as 
