I20 THE CONDOR Vol. IV pine-covered hills that surround the little valley. The mountain glades and wide pastures are edged with an open growth of oak, madrone and manzanita, --a veritable paradise for birds of a wood4oving nature, like the warblers, vireos and fly-catchers; while a small marsh bordered by willows gives a con- genial home to water-lovers, the red- wing, the song-sparrow, and the long- tailed chat. Bird music is to be heard in every di- rection, and the morning concert has no lack of star performers; 'the russet backed thrush, the western robin, the summer warbler, and the goldfinch be- ing prominent. But among them all there is no more joyous, exuberant or constant singer than the black-headed grosbeak. The thrush is surely a solo- ist, and chooses the silence of evening or the darkest shades of the laurel- groves to transfigure with his golden chain of melody. But the grosbeak is not so exacting. He sings in the glare of the hottest noon, or in pouring rain; in the orchard or in the forest. His note seems the very voice of summer, as that there are too many of him. Their voices can be heard from every little nook and side canyon, answering each other, or more often singing all at once, for they do not seem to have time to listen to what the other fellow has to say. Each pair has its particular haunt, and most of them some individual pecu- liarity of note, by which it can be known that they stay about the same spot. One which lives in a thicket to the south of the marsh has as the cli- max of his song frequently recurring srtain of these notes, sung; o?o '? Another has a double series of trip- lets, the second on a lower pitch, to which might be set the syllables bib- ble-.y bztb-ble-.y. A third repeats all this well marked melody: I? I I! I 1- I I? 1. I '1 II- ! I I II--I- I I//?"1 I- I! I- I ?"11 " j/ II '1? ? 1/11 i? ' I 1[?7,/ I I' ' ' I' i the song-sparrow's is of the first spring If this bird were not such a merry, day, of thawing brooks, greening mea- joyous singer, still his striking appear- dows and budding willows. ance and fearless, confiding nature There is no minor cadence in his should make him a favorite wherever music. The rhythm is distinct, lilting, he is known. His coloring is a striking like a dance of fays. He delights to combination of orange, black and pale pour it out, swinging on an oak twig yellow. The orange breast is the first above your head, with the bright sun- thing to attract notice, contrasting as it shine lighting up his orange and black does with the black head and back. coat. At times he even shares the nature Then, as he flits about, you notice the of the skylark in singing on the wing. yellow lining of his dark wings, and I have seen one come winging across and the yellowish wing-bars. His mate, the hollow, airy spaces of the canyon, as she broods on her nest, shows her singing most gloriously all the way. affinity to the sparrows, protective Util- The grosbeaks are the most numerous ity having prevented the upper surface of all birds here. In fact if a fault is to from developing such striking contrasts be found with this merry fellow, it is as in the case of the male. She has a
