72 
THE CONDOR 
Voi.. VI 
residents during the dead of winter are enumerated. By the middle of May the 
snow has mostly gone below 6500 feet. Summer residents are arriving in great 
numbers and some have begun nest-building. Above 8000 feet, it is often July 
before the ground is bare of snow. 
Dusky Grouse {Doidr-agapns 0. fuligincsus). I have found this bird each 
winter to at least 9500 feet. It prefers groves of the mountain pine and red fir, 
selecting trees of the thickest foliage on the northeast hill slopes. The prevailing 
winds are from the southwest. One may often approach a tree where a dozen or 
more are roosting. Without warning one will leave with great rush of wings, 
dropping like a cannon ball to some lower level, to be followed, one at a time, by 
the entire flock. 
Hairy Woodpecker {Dryobates v. hyloscop^is). Found throughout the woods 
but especially in the tamarack pines along the water courses. Its food supply, 
the larvae of beetles and ants, does not seem to be affected by the cold and deep 
snows. Two or three may be seen in a day’s trip, which illustrates its rarity. 
WiELiAiMSON Sapsucker {Sphyrapiciis thryroideiis). Rather more common 
SKEEING NEAR GLEN ALPINE. LAKE TAHOE 
than the preceding woodpecker, but also preferring the groves of tamarack. The 
resonant roll call of this bird, so striking a sound in the summer, is also heard in 
the winter, but doubly impressive in the silence of the white wilderness. One 
blmstering day I was resting under the lee of a pine on Mt. Tallac, when one of 
these birds, a male with rich glossy plumage, alighted within a few feet of me. So 
long as I was perfectly quiet it searched about in the crevices of the bark entirely 
without fear; upon a slight movement on my part it hopped away to a safe dis- 
tance where it remained eyeing me inquisitively. When I finally took my way 
along the mountain side the bird was still in the tree. 
Blue-fronted Jav {Cyanocitta s. frontalis). This bird seems equally omni- 
present winter and summer, equally noisy and inquisitive. These are seen singly, 
or in companies of three or four, flying from tree to tree, continually squawking. 
They are sometimes seen along the open watercourses where they appear to find 
food. A few were in regular attendance at Glen Alpine quarreling for the table 
scraps. I have frequently seen them in the smoke and gloom of the snowsheds of 
