A Journey Across the Sierras— S. California. 
367 
district, whilst I was out there. We camped this night once 
more amid the pines. Leaving- my partner to prepare supper, 
I took the gun and went to look for some fresh meat. I 
found a covey of well grown Valley Quail, but failed to get 
a shot. At last I got a crack at a small flock of Pigeons 
{C . fasciata) and knocked down two. These birds are fairly 
common in the mountains, but do not go about in large flocks 
like our Wood -Pigeon. They are about the size of our Blue 
Rock. The most noticeable thing about them is their liright 
yellow legs, every other variety of Pigeon I know having 
red legs. My shots at the Pigeons started a Grey Squirrel, 
and I marked it run up a large -pine. As they are very good 
eating, I tried to add this to the bag. After a careful search 
on all sides of the tree I failed to make it out. As a last 
resource I fired a shot into the top of tli;> tree, which Ivy the 
way was quite 200 feet high. On the report to my surprise 
the Squirrel ran out along the lowest branch about 150 feet 
up and took a flying leap towards another tree at least two 
hundred yards away. It sailed down as gracefully as an aero- 
plane, landing a few yards from the foot of the other tree, up 
which it scampered as if nothing uruisual had happened. The 
skin of their lower parts is loose, and when their legs are 
extended at right-angles to their body, it stretches, and sets 
much like a parachute, but although I had occasionally shot 
these animals before I had no idea tliat they possessed these 
powers of flight. 
The next day our road continued on a steady ascent 
until about mid-day when we reached the top of the pass after 
having walked practically all the morning. Before us was a 
narrow valley or canyon, the mountains on each side being 
practically bare of a!l vegetation and extremely rugged. It 
looked very cheerless and forbiddinir after the pleasant coun- 
try w(> had been passing through. However, the track was 
good, and as our way was now all down-hill, we made rapid 
progress. Bird life was scarce, but we saw a Bald Eagle, 
also a couple of Magpies {Pica nuttalii) which looked in flight 
exactly like the European species. They have, I believe, 
yellow bills, but we were not near enough to see this. They 
are scarce in California and are only found in the higher 
Sierras, but I have seen a good many of them in the Jlocky 
