A Jounicij Acronn Ihc Sirrms—S. California. ^19 
again saw plenty of bird life. About the commonest and 
certainly the handsomest bird seen was the Blue Jay (Ci/an- 
ocitta stelleri frontalis) ; its tail, wings and the lower parts 
of its body are a rich blue, the upper parts and head including 
crest, a brownish black. After four or five hours' .steady 
ascent, most of which we had done on foot, we reached one 
of the large valleys, which are found all through these moun- 
tains. Here the scenery again completely changes. Oaks, 
both evengreen and detdduous, are the principal trees, but in 
places magnificent pines of various kinds are found. Here 
and there small lakes are also to be seen, looking very pretty 
between the trees. Altogether it is a very park-like country, 
and a splendid one for stock raising. As for the birds, this is 
one of the homes of the Calif ornian Pied Woodpeckers. There 
are two kinds in this valley. "The Common (Melanerpes 
for7nicivoru'i bairdi) and the Red-breasted {Sphyrapictis varius). 
The former is found all through California and is especially com- 
mo;i where oak trees abound. It has a very curious habit of drill- 
ing holes in trees and filling them up with acorns. I have seen 
hundreds of these embedded close together and stuck in so 
tightly that you couldn't pull them out with your fingers. 
Another and much rarer bird is the large Black and Grey 
Woodpecker • or Nutcracker {Picicorvus columbianus) ; when 
flying it looks as large as our Jackdaw. We saw a pair of 
these birds enter a hole in a tree about 20 feet from the 
ground. I should much have liked to examine it, but we 
couldn't spare the time. Our luncheon this day was taken on 
the banks of a mountain stream, and under the shade of a 
fine live oak. Very much pleasanter surroundings than iwe 
had the previous day. While we were resting we had the 
opportunity of watching a Kingfisher {Ceryle nlcyon), taking 
fish. He was a considerably bigger bird than our English 
one, but acted in just the same way, darting into the water 
from a branch just over the stream, and returning to the same 
branch with his prey. The fish were fingerling tiout, or more 
properly speaking, char, the Rainbow Trout being only found 
in the larger rivers. After lunch the going was easier, the 
ascent being much more gradual, and we made good progress. 
The Black and White Woodpeckers were the commonest birds, 
but we also saw a pair of Bald Eagles {Haliaetus leucoce- 
