Transcribing the field notes of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Lassen Section (Mineral) Date: June 17, 1925 Page Number: 2471

then by the man on foot following the telephone wire, as we have done. We are now leveling at about 8000 ft., close to the south base of Brokeoff proper. We are in plain view of the lookout house on the summit, not yet occupied this year. The snow is abundant all about us, vastly more of it than last May at the same level. Indeed we found difficulty in finding a bare place, or a ridge, where we could be dry and avoid the intense glare of the sunlight from the snow. We are in high Canadian zone, getting into Hudsonian. The trees close about are red fir (predominantly), mountain pine, and alpine hemlock. The trunks and larger branches of the bigger trees are heavily festooned with a brilliantly yellow-green lichen, betokening much misty weather here. The forest floor appears to be bare save for low mats of arctostaphylos nevadensis on ridges and sunny places. The snow is melted away from the bases of the trees, but lies between the trees in heaps 2 to fully 6 feet deep. There are the usual summer clouds about; the sun beats down hotly, but the air is chilly whenever the sun is covered. I kept pencil census of all birds seen and heard for the five hours, 7-12 (see accompanying sheet). Some arriving here (at 12) till now (12:45) I have noted: Solitaire (one singing extatically among tree-tops, or giving the "barn-door creak" note at spaced intervals, many in slow sequence); Canada Nuthatch (I hear

Collector: Grinnell-1925 Location: Mineral Date: June 22 Page Number: 2489

sitting closely, nearly touched before she flew off. Nest 1750 mm out to south of trunk of cedar, which is a small tree, 8 in. diam., growing beneath sugar pine and white fir. Taken; incubation of eggs ^^{well begun. (1/4).}

8:05 a.m. - Mt. Chickadee's nest, with well-feathered young, in old woodpecker (?) hole in barkless broken-off pine stub 2 ft. in diam.; lower edge of entrance, 1950 mm. above ground. Diam. of entrance 40 mm.; ^^{38 mm. nest diam.;} Both old birds are bringing food to young.

Just followed up a song which puzzled me. The producer would stay ^^still, perched 75 to 100 feet up in firs or yellow pines. Sang a sustained, vigorous, dry trill, but dropping toward end. Quietly chipping sparrow like, but this falling at the end made me suspect an orange crowned warbler. The bird, finally seen clearly, was a Chipping Sparrow.

One or more Golden-crowned Kinglets in a clump of young fir. A Solitaire "creaking" in the distance. A Pileated Woodpecker, flying thru the woods, giving its resonant "Kuk" slowly and irregularly in a long series. At least two singing Calaveras Warblers on this dry ridge in vicinity of some smallish black oaks, but singing from all sorts of places, up to 75 feet up in firs and cedars. Tho Ch Calif. Purple Finches in full song nearby.

10:12 a.m. - Solitaire's nest, on level of ground inside a cavity (old burn) in base of ^^living sugar pine 2 1/2 feet in diameter. The four young are wholly

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral Date: June 23 Page Number: 2493

Mt. Chickadee (2); Western Tanager (5); Fox Sparrow (2); Chipping Sparrow (18); Hermit Warbler (3); Tolmie Warbler (1); Calaveras Warbler (1); Warbling Vireo (8); Calif. Purple Finch (4); Wood Pewee (13); Lazuli Bunting (3) Pileated Warbler (1); Spotted Sandpiper (2, along sparsely pebbled margins of creek); Traill Flycatcher (1); Yellow Warbler (2); Robin (29+, one seen carrying mud up to nest 50 feet above and on lowermost branch of huge yellow pine); Cassin Vireo (1); Audubon Warbler (7); Blue-fronted Jay (1); Turkey Vulture (2, one circling above vicinity of store (?), and one above woods at this end of the meadow) Brewer Blackbird (1, [female symbol] bathing and preening, as if just off nest); Pine Siskin (1); Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2); Canada Nuthatch (1); Crossbill (1, loud "chup" note heard from tips of yellow pine, given persistently, until bird flew, and also then); Killdeer (2); Meadowlark (2); Sierra Creeper (1); Western Bluebird (2); Western Lark Sparrow (1, [male symbol] singing volubly from well up in yellow pine at edge of meadow); Wright Flycatcher (2); Olive-sided Flycatcher (1); Solitaire (1); Pygmy Nuthatch (2, in different places, in upper parts of large yellow pines); White-headed Woodpecker (2); Modoc Hairy Woodpecker (2); Red-winged Blackbird (1+, heard from willows along stream, far out in meadows); Cassin Purple Finch (2, mating pair).

Total, for 1 1/2 hrs., 8:15-9:45: 38 species, 133 individuals.

1 p.m. Still at west end of Battle Creek Meadows. Have heard a Black-headed Grosbeak singing, and a Red-shafted Flicker. Just saw a Black-tailed Jack Rabbit (Lepus c. californicus) lope up the hill thru the snow bushes, from

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral Date: June 26 Page Number: 2499

glandular abdomen and hence sitting) from bole of red fir about 60 feet up. It was actively pecking at the fissured bark and dislodging tufts of the conspicuous yellow lichen which grows profusely on the trunks of some of the trees. Saw also a Red-breasted Sapsucker, and punctured red fir in the vicinity. Can hear from this point: Solitaire, Tanager, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Mt. Chickadee, Canada Nuthatch, Warbling Vireo, and Audubon Warbler. Saw a [female symbol] Calliope Hummingbird at snow-plant (Sarcodes); these plants now coming up commonly under red firs and of brilliant colors.

6265 Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker [male symbol] testes [illustration] [therefore long past functioning] wt. 73.5g.; iris dark hazel brown. Note "spurious" outer ^^(?) tail feathers!

6266 Hammond Flycatcher [male symbol] testes [illustration]; wt. 10.2g. [see p. 2497].

6267 Pileolated Warbler [male symbol] wt. 7.1g. [see p. 2497].

6268 Lutescent (?) Warbler [female symbol] jv. wt. 7.8g. [see p. 2498].

5:00p.m., at camp: collected a set of four eggs 4/4, nest and female parent, of Wright Flycatcher. Rim of nest 1130mm above ground; nest on nearly upright stem of snow-bush, supported in part by accessory twiggery; 600 mm. more of snow bush, living leafy branch, above nest. Site in sea of snowbush on gently sloping hillside; two tall cedars 75 feet away, nearest trees; but firs and pines farther away. Eggs nearly fresh;

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral, 4800 ft. Date: June 29 Page Number: 2510

6273 Traill Flycatcher [female symbol] ad. 13.0 g. with set 3/4 (see p. 2508). 6274 Traill] [Flycatcher] [female symbol] ad. 12.7 g. [with] [set] 3/4 (see p. 2509).

First up - mountain Western House Wren in snow brush by camp at 4 p.m.

June 30 Have come with family up Viola trail towards Brokeoff Mountain, and now (12:30) we are lunching at first snow - only meagre remains of drifts - at rock slide, about 7500 feet, where I found conies on the 17th. Now, I hear them in two directions, close by, but have failed to see one. The day is perfectly clear, and the sun beats down perfervidly. The trees about me are: red fir, predominating; hemlock, a few; mountain pine (P. monticola), more. The "chaparral" is: scattered flat mats of arctostaphylos nevadensis and scrawny chinquapin; most of the ground is perfectly bare of living vegetation. What sounded like a veritable troup of Crossbills flew overhead a while ago - at least there was a chorus of sharp "chup-chup's"; I caught sight of just two birds thru the trees, in undulating, linnet-like flight. Other birds seen ^^{or heard here} the past hour (now 1 o'clock) have been: Hammond Flycatcher, Ruby-crown Kinglet, Solitaire, Audubon Warbler, Western Tanager, Calliope Hummer,^ ^{Mountain Chickadee, Rock Wren,} Clark Nutcracker. I consider this extreme upper Canadian zone.

At about 6500-foot level, saw two Callospermophilus chrysodeirus, the only two ground squirrels of this species