Page:Condor16(2).djvu/19

Mar., 1914 SOME DISCOVERIES IN THE FOREST AT FYFFE 63 held two eggs, and while I was unable to reach it I felt quite sure of being able to do so next day with proper equipment. With a long rope swung from a bough above I succeeded in getting within a few feet of my unknown nest next morning (May I5), but closer proximity to the eggs, which now numbered three, was unnecessary. 'The owner lit close by and proved to be that most common bird o/these altitudes, the Western Chipping Sparrow, which usually, however, nests in very low situations. Chester Barlow and other writers relate, too, how they have had similar and rather laughable experiences endeavoring to reach nests, almost inaccessible and of apparent rar- ity, which afterwards turned out to be of this exceedingly common species. Most of the day was spent in Webber Canyon, where a number of Western Fig. 27. NEST AND EGGS OF THE HERMIT WARBLER, THE RAREST OF THE SIERRAN W?RBLERS. THIS NEST WAS SITUATED IN A YEW GROWING IN THE DENSE FOREST NORTH OF FYFFE. THE SET SHOWN IS THE FIRST TO BE FOUND CONTAINING FIV? EGGS. Winter Wrens (Nannus hiemalls pacificus) were noted. Two Band-tailed Pigeons (Columba [asciata), flying high in an easterly direction, were also seen. Two nests of the Black-headed Grosbeak (Zamclodia melanocephala capitalis?, a bird which is very abundant here, were a. lso noted, one with three fresh eggs and one bu;!ding. Along the south bank of Webber Creek, six and a half feet up in a small cedar that was half hidden amid a number of clumpy-foliaged pine saplings, I came across a nest of the Blue-fronted Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis). The sitting bird quietly slid off the nest, a bulky affair of coarse twgs, pine-needle lined, disclosing four eggs very slightly incubated. The parent showed the char- acterstic wariness of the species, for although I waited three-quarters of an hour, she did not retnrn, nor did I hear the distinctive call-note within the nesting pre-