42 VOL. VII Some Bird Notes from the Central Sierras BY CHARLES R. KEYES (Concluded from pag?e ?7) UT little mention seems to have been made of the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) from the higher altitudes of this region. They were fairly common at Blood's and especially toward evening they would come and circle about Mr. Blood's barn in company with the cliff swallows, which had here a nesting colony. On the afternoon of June x 4 nearly a score of them were present and, as they eddied about over the meadow and around the buildings, the air seemed alter- nately to be filled now with tree and now with cliff swallows. Although the two species appeared to be playing together, yet it seemed that the succeeding waves of flight were made up of one species only. No nesting sites were noted in Bear Valley, thongh the species was found breeding near Blue Lakes, elevation 8o00 feet, and also at Lake Tahoe, as noted by Mr. Beck and cited by Mr. Barlow. The nest seen near Blue Lakes on June 23 was in a hole in a Murray pine eighteen feet above the ground and two feet above a burrow of Williamson sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus), which was also occupied. The sapsucker's nest con- tained noisy young. The contents of the swallow's nest remained undetermined, it being necessary at this point to keep up with our party and procession of burros. Mr. Belding mentions the presence of the phainopepla (Phainopepla nilens) both summer and winter in the foothills of Calaveras county. To fix its occurrence at the 2000 foot elevation a few miles north of latitude 38 , I shall record it as apparently common at Douglas Flat on May 3?. It should be said that the country here is essentially of a foothill nature, however. A small area of arable land exists here just below the belts of the yellow and sugar pines and the immediate surroundings are barren. I say the bird was ap- parently common from the fact that single birds or pairs of birds usually the latter flying along rapidly and close together could be recorded every few minutes during the two midday hours that we spent here. Never more than three birds were seen at one time, so it would be difficult to say just how numerous the species really was. They flew about in a nervous manner and were difficult to approach. Their chief attraction was some cherry trees belonging to the ranch where we stopped, the fruit being ripe and furnishing food to the phainopeplas, as we had occasion to witness. A mummified specimen was incidentally found hanging in one of the trees, a victim, I judged, of the ranchman's gun. Next to the Audubon warbler the pileolated warbler ( Wilsonia pusilla pileolata) was most frequently noted, being seen at all altitudes but with especial frequency among the willows and dwarf aspens of such meadows as Bear Valley. I would hardly call it, however, a really common bird. On June x 7 I noticed a small nest which later proved to belong to this species, fitted snugly into a slight hollow of the ground in a scattered growth of veratrum. The spot was close to a small stream and very damp. It was evidently a new nest and completed, so I waited some minutes in hopes of seeing the builder but without results. The following day the nest contained an egg but no bird could be attracted to the spot. An egg was added daily thereafter until the 2tst, when, with four eggs in the nest, the fe- male was found sitting and so tame that I could approach within two feet of her. The nest was a considerable mass of weed stems, dry leaves and grass and tbe in- ner cavity, which was an inch and a half deep and the same in diameter, was lined with fine grass and white cow hair.
