42 
Voi„ VII 
Some Bird Notes from the Central Sierras 
BY CHARLES R. KEYES 
(' Concluded from page if) 
B UT little mention seems to have been made of the tree swallow ( Tachycinela 
bicolor') from the higher altitudes of this region. They were fairly common at 
Blood’s and especially toward evening they would come and circle about Mr. 
Blood’s barn in company with the cliff swallows, which had here a nesting colony. 
On the afternoon of June 14 nearly a score of them were present and, as they 
eddied about over the meadow and around the buildings, the air seemed alter- 
nately to be fdled now with tree and now with cliff swallows. Although the two 
species appeared to be playing together, yet it seemed that the succeeding waves 
of flight were made up of one species only. No nesting sites were noted in Bear 
Valley, though the species was found breeding near Blue Lakes, elevation 8000 
feet, and also at Lake Tahoe, as noted by Mr. Beck and cited by Mr. Barlow. The 
nest seen near Blue Lakes on June 23 was in a hole in a Murray pine eighteen 
feet above the ground and two feet above a burrow of Williamson sapsucker 
( Spliyrapicus thyroideus ), which was also occupied. The sapsucker's nest con- 
tained noisy young. The contents of the swallow’s nest remained undetermined, 
it being necessary at this point to keep up with our party and procession of burros. 
Mr. Belding mentions the presence of the phainopepla ( Phainompla nitens) 
both summer and winter in the foothills of Calaveras county. To fix its occurrence 
at the 2000 foot elevation a few miles north of latitude 38°, I shall record 
it as apparently common at Douglas Flat on May 31. It should be said that 
the country here is essentially of a foothill nature, however. A small area 
of arable land exists here jnst below the belts of the yellow and sugar 
pines and the immediate surroundings are barren. I say the bird was ap- 
parently common from the fact that single birds or pairs of birds usually 
the latter flying along rapidly and close together could be recorded every few 
minutes during the two midday hours that we spent here. Never more than three 
birds were seen at one time, so it would be difficult to say just how numerous the 
species really was. They flew about in a nervous manner and were difficult to 
approach. Their chief attraction was some cherry trees belonging to the ranch 
where we stopped, the fruit being ripe and furnishing food to the phainopeplas, 
as we had occasion to witness. A mummified specimen was incidentally found 
hanging in one of the trees, a victim, I judged, of the ranchman’s gun. 
Next to the Audubon warbler the pileolated warbler ( Wilsonia pusilla pileolata) 
was most frequently noted, being seen at all altitudes but with especial frequency 
among the willows and dwarf aspens of such meadows as Bear Valley. I would 
hardly call it, however, a really common bird. On June 17 I noticed a small nest 
which later proved to belong to this species, fitted snugly into a slight hollow of 
the ground in a scattered growth of veratrum. The spot was close to a small 
stream and very damp. It was evidently a new nest and completed, so I waited 
some minutes in hopes of seeing the builder but without results. The following 
day the nest contained an egg but no bird could be attracted to the spot. An egg 
was added daily thereafter until the 21st, when, with four eggs in the nest, the fe- 
male was found sitting and so tame that I could approach within two feet of her. 
The nest was a considerable mass of weed stems, dry leaves and grass and the in- 
ner cavity, which was an inch and a half deep and the same in diameter, was lined 
with fine grass and white cow hair. 
