Page:Condor3(6).djvu/38

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Nov., t9o?. I THE CONDOR ?75 Ampelis cedrorum. Cedar Waxwing. Recorded by Mr. Chas. A. Swisler at Placerville as an occasional winter visitant, going about in flocks o[ 25 or 3o birds. Lanius ludovicianus gainbell. California Shrike. Observed by Mr. Chas. A. Swisler about Placerville. Vireo gilvus. Warblin? Vireo. This species is common in summer at Fyffe and was als? heard on the t*orni meadow at 7,5o0 feet altitude in June, t9oo. One nest was found in a small black oak at Fyffe on June ?5, ?897 containing eggs. This nest did not differ in anywise from nests found in the valley. Vireo solitarius cassini. Cassin Vireo. The most common vireo of the Sierras, being usually found on the edge of clearings where it is partial to the black oaks, from which it principally obtains its food supply. ?he nests are sus- pended from drooping limbs of the oaks, and the sharp, expressive note of the parent bird frequently is uttered on the nest, the male responding; but more often the male bird will remain in or near the nesting tree while he sings. Four eggs is the usual complement, although I have twice found five eggs or young. The nests are invariably covered exteriorly with flakes of a white cocoon found in the woods, and the habit is as constant with this species as is the use of moss by Hutton vireo in its nest-building. Fresh eggs may be found at various altitudes through June, and are large [or the size of the bird. Nesting dates at Fyffe are as follows: June t7, ?897, four incubated eggs, nest three feet up in black oak bush; June 20, nest with five half-grown young, fix, e feet up in drooping black oak; June 9, a nest and four incubated eggs, suspended from black oak limb seven feet up; June t5, nest containing four fresh eggs, placed twelve feet up on drooping limb of black oak; June 6, t9oo a nest and five incubated eggs, ten feet up on drooping black oak limb. [Rare in Glen Alpine except during the early migration o[ the young, when they are wry common, being associated with warblers and often chipping spar- rows and junetas. W.W.P.] Vireo huttoni. Hutton Vireo. Heard commonly at Fyffe and several specimens shot during June. The pine region seems scarcely a suitable habitat for this species, but it evidently nests. It would be interesting to know whether or not the bird's custom of finishing the outside of ?ts nest with moss as followed in the x, alley and foothills is here carried out. I[ so, the use of the brightly-col- t;red moss (?ver?ia) would lend a handsome effect to the nest. Ilelminthophila rubricapilla gutturalis. Calaveras Warbler. This was [ound to be a common species from Fyffe to above Echr?, frequenting the deer-brush and hillsides of ?'ca'?ol/t?s cord?/aD?s. whence came its distinctive song. Although the species is far from rare in numbers, it appears that but comparativel? few of its nests have been taken, but this is uot strange when we consider the extent and nature of the country selected for nesting sites. It is usually by the merest chance that a nest is discovered, as success Jul a method as any being to beat through the "mountain misery" in the vicinity of where the male bird is found singing. Mr. Lyman Belding found several nests of this warbler at Big Trees farther south in the range. In ?896 Mr. Wilfred H. Osgood collected two sets of five eggs each, one at Fyffe and one near Slippery Ford. The taking of these two sets is described at length in T/?e JVidolo?g'ist (I[I, p. t4o ). On June 9, t899 I flushed a Calaveras warbler from her nest in the tar-weed beneath a small cedar at Fyffe, at which date the nest held five half-grown young. Again at Fyffe on May 2?, t9oo Mr. Taylor found a nest and five fresh eggs on the bank of a small ditch flowing out of the forest. The nest measured three inches outside diameter and was composed of weed-stems, grasses and a small quantity of bark. It was