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Volume XII May-June 1910 Number 3 
FROM TAHOE TO WASHOE 
By MILTON S. RAY 
WITH TWO PHOTOS BY OTUF J. HEINEMANN 
I N PLANNING the season’s field work at our 1909 base, Bijou, Lake Tahoe, 
the trip to Washoe Lake, Nevada, was one that very favorably imprest us, as 
not only the lake itself but the country intervening, promist much to the stu- 
dent of bird-life. 
On the morning of June 22 we left Bijou in our motor-boat, which took us as 
far as Glenbrook, Nevada. Glenbrook was formerly a town, in fact the principal 
one on the lake. The place now, however, is merely an obscure summer resort. 
The surrounding mountains, once magnificently timbered, now show but a sparse 
second-growth, with here and there a great gnarly pine or fir which give some idea 
of their former grandeur. At half past ten Heinemann and I, each with a pack of 
about forty pounds, set out on the Carson Road. The day was warm, and the road, 
except where crost by some stream bordered by willow's and aspens, w'as unsheltered. 
On reaching Spooner we took the Marlette Lake Road, this being the best route to 
Washoe. About Spooner, which is situated on the summit of one of the low r er 
ranges at an elevation of 7,000 feet, are tracts of country typically Nevadan, being 
dry, rocky and brushy. In these patches we found the Brewer Sparrow' abundant, 
and I was fortunate in discovering a nest along the road in the top of a sage bush 
tw'o feet up. It was made of weed stems and bark strips, lined with fine, reddish 
rootlets and a few horsehairs, and contained tw'o small young and an infertile egg. 
Spizella breweri evidently possesses no markt vocal ability and its dull plumage 
matches the arid region it inhabits. 
Leaving Spooner, the road, after some preliminary bends and turns, finally 
sallied forth up a long, narrow, wooded canyon thru w'hich courst a small stream 
of limpid water. The road, following the w'atenvay, led thru pines and firs, thick- 
ets of willow, and wonderfully beautiful aspen groves. Several nests of the 
Western Robin (Planesticus migratoi ius propinquus ) were found, which either 
contained, or had recently contained, young. Altho we were continually ascend- 
