Mar., I<n4 
SOME DIvSCOVERIES IX THE FOREST AT FYEEl-: 
.S9 
seasonal conditions. At a forest edge a Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canaden- 
sis) was noted drilling well up in a lofty dead tree trunk, while a Spurred Towhee 
(Pipilo maculatns megalonyx) fluttered off from an tmfindable nest in a patch of 
mountain misery, that softest and greenest of all Sierran carpets. 
It was not my original intention in the afternoon, in a sort of preliminary 
survey, to climb in traveling clothes the pitchy pines or charred dead tree trunks, 
but the ornithological temptations proved stronger than my resolutions. Edg- 
ing on the road I noted four rich buffy eggs of the Mountain Partridge {Orcortyx 
Fig. 25. In the Forest at Fyffe. This rather open view was 
POSSIBLE ONLY BECAUSE OF THE CLEARING ALONG THE DITCH; 
ELSEWHERE THE FOREST WAS GENERALLY SO DENSE AS TO PRE- 
CLUDE PHOTOGRAPHY. On MAY 20 A NEST OF THE SlERRA JUNCO 
WAS LOCATED CLOSE To THE LOG SPANNING THE STREAM. 
picta plnmifera) lying in a grass and leaf-lined hollow which a dead pine branch 
and surrounding weeds partially concealed. As I headed northeast into the great 
forest the rich melody of Thick-billed Sparrows (Passerella iliaca mcgarhvncha) 
came floating from the brush-covered clearings, while from all sides came a maze 
of warbler songs, incessant, varied and low. 
I had now gone a number of miles, and had visited, though without result, 
several particular points mapped and described with great care by Carriger. The 
