Nov., 1910 THE BREWER SPARROW IN FRESNO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 195 large numbers of rose beetles were eaten; but without examiniug the stomach con- tents of a specimen I could never be positive on this point. There is only one other place in this part of the State where I have ever found the Brewer Sparrow. Across the San Joaquin River in Madera County, just where the first scattering oaks begin in the foothills, are a number of low, hot, uninviting ridges, having an elevation of perhaps eight hundred feet. Devoid of vegetation except on the very summits where half a dozen large clumps of ragged sage bushes have found a foothold, these hills seemed too desolate to be a suitable home for any bird; yet on April 13 of the present year these bushes seemed alive with spar- rows, .if their songs were any indication. The number of birds that really con- stituted this colony was not easily determined as they were seldom induced to leave cover and their plumage seemed to blend with the soft gray-green of the surroundings. Half a mile below, a creek wound lazily out of the hills to be lost in a series of mud holes a few miles out on the plains. Along this stream's course a number of large cottonwoods seemed to be tempting the ornithologist to enjoy their shade. Cool a.nd inviting they extended farther and farther, at last seemingly merging into the blue haze of the mountains beyond. The sparrows were left to enjoy their torrid surroundings while the writer satisfied his desire for knowledge by hnnting
for nests of the California Jay in the bushy willows along Cottonwood Creek.
BIRD NOTES FROM SOUTHWESTERN MONTANA By ARETAS A. SAUNDERS WITH EIGHT PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR URING the spring and summer of 1910 my work kept me in camp in vari- ous parts of Silver Bow, Jefferson, and Powell counties, Montana. The nesting season, in the mountains, hardly begins before the first of June, and, with the exception of two nests of the Clarke Nutcracker, I found no nests earlier than this. The Nutcrackers (JVuci.?'aga colttmbt'ana), however, were early enuf to suit anyone. With the first warm days in March, just after. the Mountain Bluebirds had returned and when flocks of Shufeldt and Montana Juncos were beginning to throng the thickets, the Nutcrackers appeared to be choosing mates and hunting nesting sites. This bird is most abundant in this region at high elevations, in the white-bark pine forest, close to timberline, but it is not uncommon at much lower elevations, often as low as 5,000 feet, in scattered stands of Douglas fir. As these latter places are much more accessible at this season. it was here that I began my search for nests. For a time I found nothing, but finally on March 14, I notist a large bulky nest, not high up in a fir on the rocky hillside where I had been look- ing, but barely six feet from the ground in a little, thick, bushy spruce, growing in the creek bottom. An examination showed this to bea new, practically finisht but empty nest, and evidently that of a Nutcracker tho no birds were in sight. On March 18 I visited the nest again. As soon as ]2 toucht the spruce a Nut- cracker flew off, and I found that the first egg had been laid, evidently that morning. For the next three days I past the nest frequently and found the bird always sit- ting and a new egg each morning. In my experience most birds do not begin sit-
