Page:Condor2(5).djvu/10

 m6 THE CONDOR I Vol. II evening meal. The following day found us again toiling up the grade, finally deserting the dusty stage road for a rocky, almost abandoned, side road which should lead us away .into the wilderness and to Pyramid Peak--our objective point. At 6,ooofeet elevation several Sooty Grouse were heard "hoot- ing," and one flushed from beside the road. At the top of the grade the rocky hillsides vanished as if by magic and a beautiful mountain meadow lay befi)re us. Here a luxuriant growth of green grass, blossoming daisies and buttercups reminded one of early spring in the valley, and a distinctly cooler atmos- phere was apparent. We headed east- ward along the ridge toward Pyramid Peak, which, snow-capped and majestic, rose in the rich light of the setting sun, through an opening in the forest. Somewhere near the base of the peak we knexv were several unoccupied dairy buildings, and accordingly we zigzagged our way through the spongy meadow and fiDrest, following some barely visible tracks of the dairymen of the year before. While jolting roughly over the uneven road a dull white patch in the woods came to view and a me, merit later tile wagon wheels crunched in a coldly sug- gestive way over a bed of frozen snow! This sudden change from the valley was interesting, but in the shade of the tamaracks it was distinctly chilly as the shadows began to gather, and tile mem- bers of the party silently buttoned their coats and bands were thrust xvell into pockets. We were tired and the cold forest wore a gloomy aspect. Still it was here that our first Audubon's Her- reit Thrush ( hryloct'chla aonalaschka auduboni) was heard--its beautifully rich song floating up to us from a ravine near by--seemingly the farewell strains of the hirds' evening chorus. Presently a group of small Iog build- ings came into view, situated at the higher end of tile meadow, and the fording of a few small streams brought us to camp, where supper and sleep quickly closed the day's journal. June 9th the birds had been up long before us, and we went out expectantly to study a fauna largely new to our experience. We found ourselves located at the head of a beautiful glacial meadow a mile or more in length, grown up to grass and traversed everywhere by little streams of snow-water, making it diffi- cult to move about the meadow in places without getting into the water. As may be imagined, the ground was a spongy bog--a reservoir of moisture which probably feeds the lower streams through the summer. Fringing the meadow wasa forest of tamarack and red fir, both trees being an abomination to the collector who attempts to climb them, owing to the droop of the limbs, caused by the heavy winter snows. Rocks and boulders are strewn every- where among the trees. I took an ante-breakfast stroll and learned my first lesson from a chipmunk. Birds were quite plentiful, though wild, and I was interested when the sharp "chit" of a junco sounded close by. Its persistence and volume caused me to look for the nest, but look as I might, I could not see the bird. Finally Iespied a chipmunk sitting placidly on the low limbs of a red fir, and thereafter I treat- e'd all "chipping" notes with suspicion. A nest of the Blue-fronted Jay (C1,ano- cilia s. frontalis) containing four-eggs, one-half incubated, was found ten feet up in a small tamarack, and the parent indulged in protests at long range. The nest contained a large proportion of mud--quite as much as a robin's--and was lined with fibers and pine needles. Within fifteen feet of our camp fire stood a cabin, and in its side, about two feet above the ground, was a rough hole where a piece of board had broken off, and to this hole I saw a Mountain Chickadee (]arus ramb,/i) fly and chat- ter and then depart. After breakfast I investigated the hole and the little brooding bird looked up at. me with perceptible fright. Finally she flew out revealing eight eggs and a rather