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 Sept., x9oo I THE CONDOR m3 An Outinl Into the Pyramid Peak Ielion of California BY ITHOUT any pretention, for the present at least, of present- ing a complete list of the birds of the Pyramid Peak region, the writer proposes to narrate some of the incidents of an interesting outing enjoyed by three Cooper Club members the past June. The reader of the "bird" maga- zines of today is ot necessity impressed with the absence of narratives such as graced the pages of the old "bird" papers a decade or less ago. The tend- ency now is to specialize and narratives are few and far between. This change may have been for the better, but the writer believes that the perpetuation of the old style will at least partially restore the oozlng enthusiasm of scores who--ornithologically speaking--have unconsciously found themselves "shelv- ed" becausa of a lack of enthusiasm in the ornithological magazines of today. There seems to be no good re,son why an article should lose its s. cientific value through being presented in a popular rein, and having made amends for any omi:sions or commissions, the writer proceeds to his subject with a lighter conscience. June 4th found Mr. W. I,. Atkinson and myself traversing the old Sierra stage road toward Fyffe, where our fel- low c!ub-member, Mr. 1,. E. Taylor, awaited our coming. Along the road comparatively little bird life is apparent, owing to the absence of underbrush, exposure to the hot sun and the volume 'of dust arising from the heavy travel. Yet along this road, at 3,50o feet eleva- tion, among a considerable growth of cedars, the Audubon's Warblers attdtboti) have colotiized to quite an extent, and although they occur all through the forest, they are noticeably common at this point. On June 5th I saw an Audubon's Warbler carrying food and shortly after found the nest twenty feet up on the drooping limb of BARLOW a large pine. Upon climbing the tree the young, four in number, flew from the nest to the grotind, and the parent birds practiced the well-known ruse of dragging themselves along, the;.ground. Wishing to secure a complete family of te species, the young and parents were taken, and upon skinning the young birds, each xvas found to be afflicted with a small grub which had lodged between the skull and the skin, and which crawled out after the skin had been turned. The nest was lined with feathers, as is usual in this species. At Fyffe, Hutton's Vireo ( [7reo hut- toni) was commonly heard and one specimen, a female, was taken. I col lected one in 899, but never observed the bird so commonly as this year. It would be interesting to compare a nest of this vireo from the coniferous belt with one from the oak regions of the valley, to see if the bird's penchant for moss is here gratified, but unfortunately no nests were met with. On the even- ing of the 5th Mr. Atkinson and I went out to inspect the timber, but few birds were about and fewer nests were discov- ered, Mr. Atkinson noting a nest of the Black-throated Gray Warbler (tr). nigrcs- certs), from which the bird flew as lie brushed past the small cedar tree con- taining it. The full complement of four eggs was taken the following day, the nest being constructed of the usual grayish materials. In this region the Black-headed Grcsbeak (Zamelodia mcl- anocephala) and the ,Thick-billed Spar- row (Passerella i. mexarh?wh:) are by far [he most prominent vocalists. The old habit of the male Cassin's Vireo ( l: s. casshd) singing from the vicinity of the nest did trot fail and in response to the sharp, querulous song of the male from a black oak, I looked about and presently found the nest ten feet up on a drcoping limb of the oak. The nest contained five eggs, well incu-