July, 1910 
LATE SPRING IN LAKE VALLEY 
1.11 
Thick-billed Sparrow ( Passerella iliaca megarhyncha) and the Green-tailed 
Towhee ( Oreosftiza chlomra)\ but I was not successful in locating any nests of 
either species. 
By daybreak on May 30 I was on the road for the trip to Cave Rock and back. 
A tramp of 20 miles takes up the best part of a day to say nothing of the stops en 
route incidental to the study of ornithology. Near Edgewood two nests of the 
Western Robin w r ere found which will illustrate the wide variation in nesting 
dates which I have found to prevail in the Sierras as it does almost everywhere, 
Fig. 42. nest, iu situ , of the ruby-crowned kingi.ET; 
NEAR LAKE TAHOE 
Photo by Oluf J. Heinemami 
and shows the fallacy of basing any laid-down rule for nesting dates on the finding of 
a few nests. One of the two nests above referred to contained a single fresh egg 
while the other held three large young. 
Not far from Cave Rock the booming of grouse resounded everywhere thru the 
woods, but I did not see any of them altho I scanned tree after tree. Cave Rock, a 
bold, rocky cliff jutting into the lake, w r as the site of an occupied hawk’s nest on 
my last visit; so it was with a feeling of expectation that I approacht it, but neither 
the hawks nor their nests were to be seen. In exploring the shallow cave which 
