140 
THi-; CONDOR 
! V..1. iir 
few sweet notes. To my mind it’s a 
very sweet song, but quite out of keep- 
ing with one of whom sucli dreadful 
things are told. So far as I have ob- 
served, he is quiet and well-behaved 
about here, feeding on worms mainly. 
Lacking evidence, I shall decline to be- 
lieve the stories of cannibalism and 
malicious cruelty. 
Out of all this medley of voices came 
a clear, joyous note which told me that 
robin redbreast was camping near. 
With my gla.ss I saw him on the top 
branch of one of the trees, and then he 
was off again. I do not think he is as 
friendl}^ as the eastern robin, though 
his notes proclaim him to be just the 
same saucy, vivacious fellow. One of 
the flock which came about was hurt in 
some way, probably colliding with a 
wire fence, and died in the yard, at- 
tended by a deeply concerned linnet. 
This gave me what I had waited for, — a 
chance to study him close by. 
Since the above was written our bird 
visitors have been numerous Audu- 
bon’s warbler was about the yard for a 
week or more before we identified him. 
He became friendly, even to the point 
of sitting on my clothes-line. During 
the heavy rains he made quite a deter- 
mined effort to come through the win- 
dow screen into the attractive shelter 
within. At that time he was alone, but 
I noticed quite a flock of them later. 
The intermediate sparrows began to 
come the first week of h'ebruary and 
soon took up their abode in a brush 
pile, where they found many choice 
tidbits, — from a sparrow^’s standpoint. 
.\fter the rains the meadowdarks came 
back in great flocks. vSide by side w'ilh 
Brewer’s blackbirds they strut along, 
bobbing this way or that for food, very 
much after the manner of a chicken. 
Their song is a wonder and a never- 
ending joy to us. Sometimes a lone 
singer will jierch on a branch near the 
house and will go through a series of 
trills, whistles and low gurgles, ending 
finally in a glorious bur.st of .song. 
.\bout the middle of February for the 
first time this season, I heard the pileo- 
lated warbler’s song. His sweet little 
call-note made me aware of his presence 
some weeks before this. The .Arkan- 
sas goldfinch makes several visits daily 
to sip a few drops of water from the 
liydrant. Linnets are as numerous and 
as noisy as ever and very busy these 
days among the pepper grass wdiich 
grows in abundance here. The blue- 
birds are very quiet. I hear only an oc- 
casional peep from them, though many 
have been in the yard. We called them 
the western bluebird since w-e heard no 
sc iig. d'iiey are welcome visitors and 
make up for lack of song by the bril- 
liant flash of color when they fly. The 
last week in Janyary I heard such 
funny lisping sounds, entirelv new to 
me. Upon close investigati(m with a 
glass I saw a flock of cedar waxwings 
in a near-by sycamore tree, much inter- 
ested in their breakfast while all the 
time they kept up that lisping chatter. 
Many other birds have been seen but 
not clearly identified. I feel quite sure 
I saw a fiock of American tit-larks; they 
had that teetering motion, as they 
looked about for food, de.scribed by 
Keeler in “Bird Notes Afield.’’ 
VV'e are now getting ready to enter- 
tain In sts of bird visitors another sea- 
son by setting out a strawberry patch 
and planting a variety of loganberries 
and blackberries, besides a mulberry 
tree, which will doubtless prove a great 
favorite later on. How many berries 
will be left for our own use remains to 
be seen. At the time of writing 
(March) meadowlarks, goldfinches, blue- 
birds and intermediate sparrows have 
quite deserted us, only a few coming 
back for a hurried call now and tlien, 
instead of the daily visit of last month. 
Perhaps they have gone to the cool 
of the canyons or to richer feeding 
grounds. They disappeared so quietly 
and suddenly, .somewhat after the man- 
ner of the Arabs, “who fold their tents 
and quietly steal away.’’ Great fiocks 
of robins and blackbirds fly over but 
.scarcely deign to look this way. .Some 
