Transcribing the field notes of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Mineral, 4800 ft. Date: July 26 Page Number: 2530

of the nest she has under observation - Robin ^^{(2 eggs)}, Wright Flycatcher ^^{(3 eggs)}, Green-tailed Towhee (3 small young). She is keeping full, formal notes on all these, so I won't repeat. The most astonishing thing is the second set of eggs of Wright Flycatcher in the same nest a brood of 4 was raised in, this season. As far as I can see, the nest is in excellent condition, clean and compact; of course is might have - probably was - re lined and otherwise renovated at the beginning of the second mating.

Jumped a fawn here by camp, from a lying-down place under a very small fir surrounded by dense ceanothus cordulatus save for a poorly marked entrance gangway. The deer somehow got thru [sic] the mass of entanglements opposite me as I came in along the "gangway"; I noted mentally that it was a "jack rabbit" until it bounded into the open beyond, behaving, in movements, just like an old deer, tho it certainly wasn't more than 1/4 grown.

July 27

6293 Calaveras Warbler [male symbol] im. 8.1g. Shot out of hemlock, 25 feet up, where looked much larger than it proved to be.

6294 Sierra Crossbill [male symbol] ad. 29.6g. Shot out of top of hemlock about 25 feet above steeply sloping mountain-side. Testes [testes illustration]. With at least 5 others scattered about in tops of closely adjacent hemlocks, these latter abundantly producing the green pendant cones. I was mentally sure the crossbills were feeding on these cones; if even when skinning the bird shot, and I

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Broke-off Mt. Date: July 27 Page Number: 2531

came to the distended gullet, I could see the "seeds" showing thru the transparent walls! But the sole contents proved to be smooth bright green caterpillars, 13 of them, very uniform in size, 12 to 17 mm. long, tho decidedly stretchable.

Up to summit of Broke-off Mt. and back, with family. Left camp at 7 a.m., in Ford, up "Lassen road" to where "short trail" to Broke-off turns off to left (not more than 1/2 miles below "Soupan springs." From there to the top by trail in about 4 miles, 7000 to 9500 ft. alt. two life-zones are traversed - Canadian, with red fir as chief indicated, and Hudsonian, with alpine hemlock as indicator. But there is much blending between these two, and no "line" can be drawn to separate them. The middle of the belt of mergence on the south-east side of Broke-off I should say averaged about 8000 ft. There is no true timberline on this mountain, altho [sic] the upper 400 non-precipitous feet of the top is mostly bare. Yet scrubby hemlocks go up in places to within a few yards of the brightest parts of the short crest.

Mr. John W. Gransbury is the present Forest Lookout on the top, which is provided with a very comfortable glass-sided lookout house - rather airy in "feeling", as it is on the brink of the crumbling ^^{east and} northeast declivity, from which rocks often fall. As I waved the top, at 12:30, two Duck Hawks passed close over me and directly over the house.

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Broke-off Mt. Date: July 27 Page Number: 2532

Mr. Gransbury saw them and said he had seen them about the summit early the same day, but not before, this summer. Willard saw a Sparrow Hawk on top, and Mr. Gransbury said this little hawk had visited him frequently. He said further that the last fall (he staid on lookout till Oct. 15 when he had seen temperatures down to 14°+ and some snow) large hawks came past often. One morning lately he saw a Grouse perched on a rock ledge within 20 feet of a window. I flushed 2 Grouse down in the hemlock at about 9000 ft.; they evidently follow the scrubby hemlocks cleans to the top. I saw fresh deer tracks up to 9200 ft., and Mr. Gransbury pointed down to a green patch at the base of the cliff to the northeast where he frequently saw^sees deer.He says there are "mice" in his house and he often sees copperheads (Callosp.) and little striped chipmunks (Eut. amoenus?) about the rocks. The following are the birds I saw in "Hudsonian" that is, about the 8000-foot contour: Calliope Hummer (3 seen, all [female symbol] [female symbol] or young - no Rufous, as I had expected - for there was a profusion of flowers all the way up - a full collection saved by Mrs. G. & Molly for the plant press); Cross-bill (just the one "family" from which the old male was shot, as above); Calaveras Warbler (the one shot as above was one of a company of 6 or 8 birds scattered and moving thru [sic] the dense hemlock

Collector: Grinnell - 1925 Location: Broke-off Mt. Date: July 27 Page Number: 2533

foliage which the breeze kept in disconcerting agitation); Cassin Purple Finch (2 or more, distantly heard and seen in tops of hemlocks); Sierra Grouse (2, as above); Hammond Flycatcher (2 immatures, separately, seen closely in hemlocks at 8000 to 9000 ft.); Junco (2, in hemlocks).*

In the red-fir belt (Canadian), 8000 ft., about, down to 7000 ft., where we left the machine, noted: Deer (doe and fawn at edge of alder thicket); Callospermophilus (2 or more); Thomomys monticola (sign common); Fox Sparrow (one immature near patch of heather along little stream at 8000 ft., and others heard in alder patches); Juncos (commonest bird, one [male symbol] singing at tip of lofty red fir - many full-grown young in scattering troupes); Evening Grosbeak (one family of 5 or so alighted on dead lower branches of a fir and notes of others were heard now and then); Solitaire (one flushed from ground); Siskin (notes of 2 or 3 heard overhead); Blue-fronted Jay (heard several times); Cassin Vireo (2 immatures closely seen in a jungle of white alders); Hammond Flycatcher (weak call notes heard often, and one bird seen, 30 feet or so up in densely shaded branchwork of fir); Wood Pewee (pair at 7000 ft.); Pileated Warbler (song of one heard from alders); Robin (a pair at a little ^^moraine lake in the fir woods was noisily concerned at our presence); Audubon Warbler (a family, male singing, in trees at this same lake); Canada Nuthatch (notes heard in the distance).