March, 1905 | 
BIRD NOTES FROM THE CENTRAL SIERRAS 
43 
Of all Sierra birds none seemed to possess a greater breadth and depth of char- 
acter and none impressed its individuality more deeply upon us travelers than the 
stout-hearted little mountain chickadee (Pams gambeli). From Big Trees on to end 
of the trip he was ever with us and, while always tending strictly to his own 
affairs and resenting any intrusion on his own, he was yet far from unsociable and 
his clear high-pitched notes helped to interpret the spirit of the forest and the 
mountain. In every way he seemed to justify his position of high development 
among birds to which he has been assigned. His independence of thought (or is 
it only instinct?) and action were well shown in his defense of his home. The 
sitting bird would either slip quietly from its nest when danger was still afar off 
or would resolutely refuse to budge at all. The sound emitted by a sitting moun- 
tain chickadee when disturbed was, in my experience, rather that of a sudden ex- 
pulsion of air from the lungs than that of the hiss of a snake, as Mr. Barlow de- 
scribes it. a The explosive sound was accompanied by a very decided beat of both 
wings against the sides and bottom of the nest cavity. Seven nests were noted in 
all, four of them being in the usual nesting sites between three and eighteen feet 
above the ground, as given in Mrs. Bailey’s Handbook. The other three pairs re- 
fused to be bound by the ordinary rules for conventional chickadees and placed 
their homes at less ambitious elevations. One pair chose a small and well protected 
natural cavity in a living juniper and built the nest at a height of twelve inches 
from the ground, the entrance being eight inches higher and quite small. This 
nest contained on June 19 seven unspotted eggs nearly ready to hatch. Another 
pair made use of a small burnt tamarack stump which contained a natural cavity, 
the rather small opening of which was just twelve inches above the ground. This 
cavity was straight and vertical and slightly over twelve inches in depth, so that 
the nest was on an exact level with the surface of the ground. This nest contained 
five fresh spotted eggs on June 17 on which the parent was sitting. The third pair 
of birds worthy of particular mention had their home in a natural cavity of a big 
pine stump near Blood’s corral. The entrance was an inch wide, one and a half 
inches high, quite regular in shape and exactly one inch above the ground. The 
cavity sloped slightly downward for ten inches to the nest, which was thus eight 
inches at least beneath the surface of the soil. The nest was observed several times 
on June 21, the parent sometimes leaving the nest hole when I was still some dis- 
tance off and again refusing to leave on any provocation. Seven unspotted eggs 
constituted the complement and from appearances I judged them to be advanced 
in incubation. In case of most of these nests it was of course necessary to enlarge 
the entrance somewhat in order to arrive at the desired information. So far as I 
observed this did not in any case cause the birds to forsake their nests. 
Of water birds only five species were noted on the entire trip, viz., Forster 
tern, black tern, spotted sandpiper, killdeer, and an unidentified duck. My notes 
on these are hardly satisfactory enough to justify any lengthening of the present 
article. 
An early summer trip to the Sierras is both a thing to be enjoyed in the mak- 
ing and a memory of incomparable worth. All the better if one may allow the 
birds to add to the joys inspired by grand scenery and mountain air. One may 
well repeat Belding’s and Barlow’s advice to visit these mountains for oneself or 
Muir’s enthusiastic cry: “Come to the mountains and see!” 
Mt. Vernon , Iowa. 
a The Condor, III, p. 113. 
