the females went off by themselves. Once I saw Madame Phainopepla bring
her friend home with her. No sooner had the visitor lit than--shocking
to relate--the lord of the house left his work and drove her off with
bill and claw--a polite way to treat his lady's friends, surely! On one
occasion, when I looked up I saw a procession passing overhead--two
females followed by a male. The male flew hesitatingly, as if troubled
by his conscience, and then, deciding that if the nest was ever going to
be built he had better keep at it, turned around and came back to work.
One day when I rode over to the chaparral island, I found two of the
males sitting around in the brush. They played tag until tired, and then
perched on a branch in the sun, side by side, evidently enjoying
themselves like light-hearted, care-free bachelors. Their mates were
not in sight. But suddenly I glanced up and saw two females flying in to
the island high overhead, as if coming from a distance. Instantly the
indifferent holiday air of their mates vanished. They gave their low
warning calls, for I was on the ground and they must not show me their
nests. In answer to the warning the females wavered, and then, when
their mates joined them, all four flew away together.
At other times when I rode in the males would make large circles,
seventy-five feet above me, as if to get a clear understanding of the
impending danger. This was when small nest hunters were about, and the
birds were some whose nests I did not find, and who had no opportunity
to become convinced of my good intentions.
After finding that the males did most of the building, I was anxious to
see how it would be when the brooding began. Three of my nests were
broken up beforehand, however, and the fourth was despoiled after I had
watched the birds on the nest one day. Nevertheless, the evidence of
that day was most interesting as far as it went. It proved that while
the female lacked the architect's instinct, she was not without the
maternal instinct. There were two eggs in the nest, and in the one hour
that I watched, each bird brooded the eggs six times. Before this, the
female had been to the nest so much less than the male that now she was
much shyer; but although Billy frightened her by tramping down the brush
near by, it was she who first overcame her fears and went to cover the
eggs.
XIX.
MY BLUE GUM GROVE.
ONE of the first things I did on getting settled on my ranch, the second
time I was in California, was to get a wagon and go down to my
eucalyptus grove for a load of the pale green aromatic boughs with which
to trim my attic study; for their fragrance is delightful and their
delicate blue-green tone lends itself readily to decorative purposes.
When the supply needed replenishing, I rode down on Mountain Billy and
carried home the sweet-smelling branches on the saddle.
The grove served a more utilitarian purpose, however. The eucalyptus is
an Australian tree, with narrow straight-hanging leaves, and its rapid
growth makes it useful for firewood. A tree will grow forty feet in four
years, and when cut off a few feet above the ground will spring up again
and soon be ready to yield another crop. My grove had never been cut,
but would soon be old enough. In the photograph of a eucalyptus avenue
near Los Angeles, the row of trees on the right have been cut near the
ground and the branching trunks are the consequence.
[Illustration: EUCALYPTUS AVENUE, SHOWING POLLARDED TREES ON THE RIGHT,
NEAR LOS ANGELES]
My eucalyptus or blue gum grove was down near the big sycamore, and
opposite the bare knoll where Romulus and the burrowing owls had their
nightly battles. On one side of it was a rustling cornfield always
pleasant to look at. After the bare yellow stubble and all the reds and
browns of a California summer landscape, its rich dark green color and
its stanch, strong stalks made it seem a very plain honest sort of
field, and its greenness was most grateful to eyes unused to the bright
colors and strong lights of California.
Opposite the little grove, in a small house perched on a hill, an old
sea-captain lived alone. As I rode by one day, he sat with his feet
hanging over the edge of the high piazza, looking off; as if on the prow
of his vessel, gazing out to sea. When I stopped to ask if he had seen
anything noteworthy happen at the grove, he complained that it shut off
his view and kept away the breeze from the ocean! I was too much taken
by surprise to apologize for my trees, but felt reproached; unwittingly
I had destroyed the old captain's choicest pleasure. He had spoken in an
impersonal way that I quite understood,--he had been taken
unawares,--but the next time I rode past, as if to make up for any
apparent rudeness, he came hurrying down the walk to tell me of a crow's
nest he had seen in the grove. To mark it he had fastened a piece of
paper to the wire fence by the road, and another paper to the nest tree,
binding it on with a eucalyptus twig in true sailor fashion.
It was always a relief to leave the hot beating sun and the glare of the
yellow fields and enter the cool shade of the quiet grove. I could let
down the fence and put it up behind me; thus having my small forest all
to myself; and used to enjoy riding up and down the fragrant blue
avenues. The eucalyptus-trees, although thirty or forty feet high, were
lithe and slender; some of them could be spanned by the hands. The rows
were planted ten feet apart, but the long branches interlaced, so one
had to be on the alert, in riding down the lines, to bend low on the
saddle or push aside the branches that obstructed the way. The limbs
were so slender and flexible that a touch was enough to bend back a
green gate fifteen to twenty feet long, and Billy often pushed a branch
aside with his nose. In places, fallen trees barred our path, but Billy
used to step carefully over them.
The eucalyptus-trees change very curiously as they grow old. When young
they are covered with branches low to the ground, and their aromatic
tender leaves are light bluish green; afterwards they lose their lower
branches, while their leaves become stiff and sickle-shaped, dull green
and almost odorless. The same changes are seen in the bark: first the
trunks are smooth and green; then they are hung with shaggy shreds of
bark; this in turn drops off so that the old trees are smooth again.
Some of the young shoots have almost white stems, and their leaves have
a pinkish tinge. Indeed, a young blue gum is as pretty a sight as one
often sees; it is a tree of exquisite delicacy of coloring.
[Illustration: EUCALYPTUS WOOD STORED FOR MARKET, IN A EUCALYPTUS GROVE
NEAR LOS ANGELES]
Mountain Billy and I both liked to wander among the blue gums. Billy
liked it, perhaps, for association's sake, for we had ridden through the
eucalyptus at his home in northern California. I too had pleasant
memories of the northern gums, but my first interest was in finding out
who lived in my little woods. A dog had once been seen driving a coyote
wolf out of it, but that was merely in passing. I did not expect to meet
wolves there. It was said, however, to be a good place for tarantulas,
so at first I stepped over the dead leaf carpet with great caution; but
never seeing any of the big spiders, grew brave and sat indifferently
right on the ground before the nests, or leaning up against the trees.
The ground was almost as hard as a rock, for the eucalyptus absorbed all
the moisture, and that may have had something to do with its freedom
from snakes and scorpions, though it would not explain the absence of
caterpillars and spiders, which just then were so common outside. Though
in the grove a great deal, I never ran into but one cobweb, and was
conscious of the pleasant freedom from falling caterpillars. Moreover, I
never saw a lizard in the blue gums, though dozens of them were to be
seen about the oaks and in the brush.
It was a surprise to find so many feathered folks living in the
eucalyptus, and I took a personal interest in each one of the
inhabitants. The first time we started to go up and down the avenues we
scared up a pair of turtle doves, beautiful, delicately tinted gentle
creatures, fit tenants of the lovely grove. They did not know my
friendly interest in them, and flew to the ground trailing and trying to
decoy me away in such a marked manner that when we passed a young dove a
few yards farther on, it was easy to put two and two together.
Yellow-birds called _cheet'-tee, ca-cheet'-ta-tee_, and the grove became
musical with the sweet calls of the young brood. There was one nest with
a roof of shaggy bark, and I wondered if the birds thought it would be
pleasant to live under a roof, or whether the bark had fallen down on
them after they built. I could get no trace of the owners of the nest,
and it troubled me, not liking to have any little homes in my wood that
I did not know all about. As we went down one aisle, a big bird went
blundering out ahead of us, probably an owl, for afterwards we stumbled
on a skeleton and feathers of one of the family.
In one of the trees we came to an enormous nest made of the unusual
materials that are sometimes chosen by that strange bird, the
road-runner. It was an exciting discovery, for that was before the
road-runner had come to the ranch-house, and I had been pursuing phantom
runners over the hills in the vain attempt to learn something about
them; while here, it seemed, one had been living under my very vine and
fig-tree! To make sure about the nest, I spoke to my neighbor ranchman,
and he told me that when he had been milking during the spring he had
often seen the birds come out of the blue gums, and had also seen them
perching there on the trees. How exasperating! If I had only come
earlier! Now they had gone, and my chance of a nest study was lost.
But my doll was not stuffed with sawdust, for all of that. There was
still much to enjoy, for a mourning dove flew from her nest of twigs
almost over Billy's head, and it made me quite happy to know that the
gentle bird was brooding her eggs in my woods. Then it was delightful to
see a lazuli bunting on her nest down another aisle. It seemed odd, for
there was her little cousin nesting out in the weeds in the bright sun,
while she was raising her brood in the shady forest. The two nests were
as unlike as the sites. The bird outside had used dull green weeds,
while this one used beautiful shining oak stems. I thought the pretty
bird would surely be safe here, but one day when I called, expecting to
see a growing family, I was shocked to find a pathetic little skeleton
in the nest.
One afternoon in riding down the rows, I came face to face with two
mites of hummingbirds seated on a branch. Their grayish green suits
toned in with the color of the blue gums. It was a surprise when one of
them turned to the other and fed it--the mother hummer was small enough
to be taken for a nestling! She sat beside her son and fed him in the
conventional way, by plunging her bill down his open mouth. When she had
flown off, he stretched his wings, whirred them as if for practice, and
then moved his bill as if still tasting the dainty he had had for
supper. He sat very unconcernedly on a low branch right out in the
middle of the road, but Billy did not run over him.
I found two hummers' nests in the eucalyptus during the summer. One
builder was the one the photographer was fortunate enough to catch
brooding; her nest, the one so charmingly placed on a light blue branch
between two straight spreading leaves, like the knot between two bows of
stiff ribbon.
The second nest was on a drooping branch, and, to make it stand level,
was deepened on the down side of the limb, making it the highest
hummingbird's nest I had ever seen. It was attached to a red leaf--to
mark the spot, perhaps--one often wonders how a bird can come back twice
to the same leaf in a forest. How one little home does make a place
habitable! From a bare silent woods it becomes a dwelling-place.
Everything seemed to centre around this little nest, then the only one
in the grove; the tiny pinch of down became the most important thing in
the woods. It was the castle which the trees surrounded.
When I first found the nest it held two white warm eggs about as large
as peas, and I became much interested in watching their progress, often
riding down to see how they were getting on. The hummer did not return
my interest. She was nervous, darting off when Billy shook himself or
when the shadow of a soaring turkey buzzard fell over the nest; but in
spite of that we made ourselves quite at home before her door. I would
dismount and sit on the ground, leaning against a blue gum, while Billy
stood by, in a bower of green leaves, with ears pricked forward
thoughtfully, and a dreamy look of satisfaction in his eyes.
Hummingbirds are such dainty things. Once when this one alighted on the
rim of her nest she whirred herself right down inside. Soon she began to
act so strangely for a brooding bird that, when she flew, I went to feel
in the nest. The tips of my fingers touched what felt like round balls,
but, not satisfied, I pulled down the bough and found one round ball and
one mite of a gray back with microscopic yellow hairs on each side of
the spine. The whole tiny body seemed to throb with its heart beats. I
wondered how such a midget could ever be fed, but found, as in the case
of the hummer under the little lover's tree, that the mother gave its
food most gently, reserving her violent pumping for a more suitable age;
though one would as soon think of poking a needle down a baby's throat
as that bill.
Often, while watching the nest, my thoughts wandered away to the grove
itself. The brown earth between the rows was barred by alternate lines
of sunlight and shadow, and the vista of each avenue ended in blue sky.
Sometimes cool ocean breezes would penetrate the forest. The rows of
trees, with their gently swaying, interlacing branches, cast moving
shadows over the sun-touched leafy floor, giving a white light to the
grove; for the undersides of the young eucalyptus leaves are like snow.
From the stiff, sickle-shaped upper leaves the sun glanced, dazzling the
eyes. Mourning doves cooed, and the sweet notes of yellow-birds filled
the sunny grove with suggestions of happiness. A yellow butterfly
wandered down the blue aisles. Such a secure retreat! I returned to it
again and again, coming in out of the hot yellow world and closing
behind me the doors of my 'rest-house,' for the little wood had come to
seem like a cool wayside chapel, a place of peace.
And when I finally left California, deserting Mountain Billy to return
to the East, of all my haunts the one left the most unwillingly was the
little blue gum grove, the peaceful wayside rest-house, in whose
whitened shade we had spent so many quiet hours together.
[Illustration]
INDEX
Bee-bird, 114-116, 117.
catching bees, 114, 115.
caught in cobweb rope, 116.
defending nest with life, 91-92.
domesticity, 116.
flycatching, 16, 91, 160.
making living off blackbirds, 13.
nest, 91.
nesting site, 91, 115.
noisy, 15.
notes, 91, 116.
quarrelsome, 91, 115, 116.
Bird Psychology,
association of ideas, 46, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 115, 135, 138, 154,
198.
caution, 9, 22, 28, 36, 65, 66, 67, 82, 85, 87, 88, 94, 156, 196,
198, 201, 202, 204.
courage, 11-12, 23, 40, 42, 54, 83, 95, 97, 126, 129, 141, 144,
175, 177, 180, 181, 210, 215.
curiosity, 25, 97, 100, 151.
dissimulation, 45, 49, 62, 190, 215.
emotion,--
fear, 22, 25, 26, 27, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 46, 61, 67, 71, 73, 81,
87, 88, 105, 133, 135, 154, 164, 177, 180, 191, 215, 218;
grief, 46, 47, 92;
joy, 30, 204;
unusual action under excitement, 30, 58, 63, 64, 81, 87, 88, 191,
208.
expression of emotion and ideas,--
by use of crests, attitudes, and movements, 8, 9, 11, 16, 26, 30,
31, 32, 33, 34, 39, 41, 42, 44, 46, 49, 53, 56, 59, 63, 64, 67,
76, 78, 79, 81, 84, 87, 88, 90, 97, 101, 105, 116, 117, 124, 129,
132, 138, 139, 149, 156, 166, 180, 190, 191, 202, 205, 208, 215.
By voice,--
calls of warning, 5, 42, 53, 85, 197, 198, 201, 202, 203, 209;
conversation, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49,
52, 59, 62, 69, 71, 74, 75, 78, 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 109, 110,
118, 132, 134, 145, 147, 149, 153, 156, 178, 180, 182, 190, 192;
cries of anger, anxiety, distress, fear, pain, 12, 45, 46, 47,
58, 86, 91, 94, 133, 138, 191;
exclamations, 44, 58, 61, 87, 115, 116, 124;
scoldings, 34, 36, 37, 58, 60, 86, 95, 96, 162, 172, 182;
songs of happiness, 8, 10, 15, 21, 22, 52, 59, 82, 83, 84, 90,
93, 95, 96, 97, 122, 126, 142, 169, 175, 178, 198, 205;
songs of love, 22, 26, 30, 31, 56, 90, 101, 142, 168, 170, 181,
204, 205, 208.
humor, 124.
individuality, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16, 22, 25, 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34,
35, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 54, 56, 62, 63, 64,
65, 75-80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99,
100, 101, 111, 115, 124, 125,126, 132, 136, 139, 142, 143, 149,
153, 154, 163, 164, 170, 179, 181, 184, 190, 194, 195, 204, 205,
208, 209, 216-217.
inherited instincts, 75, 76, 78, 79, 156.
intelligence shown in,--
building, 17, 28, 49, 50, 53, 107, 108, 109, 114, 136, 150, 154,
158, 217-218;
disciplining young, 85;
getting food by others' work, 13;
profiting by mistakes, 107, 109, 133, 134, 153-154 (?);
protecting young, 8, 9, 12, 36, 37, 85, 135, 156, 191, 215;
removing nest from danger, 60, 114, 154;
selecting materials for nest, 14, 53, 56, 82, 89, 96, 107, 127,
144, 150, 179, 181;
selecting nesting site, 23, 28, 83, 93, 95, 99, 124, 127, 130,
131, 150;
silence of young in danger, 71, 85.
keen senses, 59, 74, 97.
local attachment, 6;
special perches, 57, 62, 126, 129, 167, 202, 204, 206.
play impulse, 12, 115, 124, 155 (?), 208-209.
pride of possession, 25, 86, 115, 204-205.
self-denial, 33, 50, 52.
Birds,
adaptation, 150, 152, 163, 164;
protective coloration, 10, 11, 81, 92, 101, 185, 199.
domestic life,--
accept help in building, 97, 152-153, 175-178, 179-180;
affection, 22, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33, 78, 84, 85, 90, 142, 166,
180, 182, 196, 201, 204, 208;
as parents, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 23, 24, 31-38, 46, 55, 63, 64,
69, 84, 85, 87, 88, 110, 111, 129, 135, 137, 154-155, 156,
172, 182, 185-186, 189-193, 215, 217;
companionship of mates, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31, 42, 46, 53, 56,
59, 62, 81, 83, 87, 89, 90, 106, 109, 126, 141, 142, 145,
166, 177, 178, 180, 182, 196, 204;
coquettish airs, 33;
courtship, 31, 90, 101, 148, 149;
defense of nest, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 25, 45, 46, 47, 57, 58, 86,
91, 92, 115, 124-125, 138, 141, 178, 182, 204-205, 209;
excitement when young hatch, 63;
family government, 12, 35, 85, 111, 156;
friendly birds shy at nest, 65, 66, 67, 86, 87, 88, 93, 94,
99, 105, 153, 198, 202, 203;
--habits of male at nest:
absent, 24, 149-155, 167;
brings mate food for young, 32, 63;
brings material to mate, 50, 52;
broods, 43, 44, 62;
builds while female looks on or goes off with other females, 199,
200, 203, 204, 207-208;
feeds mate, 27, 52, 126, 132, 134, 180, 182;
feeds young, 33, 82, 88;
guards mate, 27, 42, 53, 201;
helps mate build, 48, 50, 52, 61, 106, 108, 109, 126, 135, 142,
145;
sings while mate builds and broods, 22, 26, 30, 31, 33, 56, 83,
84, 90, 175, 177, 178;
interval between building and brooding, 59, 145, 181;
looking for nesting sites, 25, 26, 129, 184-185;
lordly airs of male, 25, 115, 116, 117, 172, 208;
paternal instinct, 31-33, 53, 63, 191, 204, 205;
persistence in work, 60, 107, 178;
reluctance to brood, 43, 44;
tenderness to young, 23, 33, 84, 85.
food,--
ants, 76;
bees, 114, 115;
carrion, 97;
cocoons, 100;
gophers, 136;
grubs, 12, 13, 111;
insects, 4, 6, 7, 16, 31, 36, 82, 91, 101, 150, 160;
lizards and toads, 99;
pepper berries, 197, 198, 201;
rats and mice, 137;
scale, 103;
seeds, 93, 162;
snakes, 132;
spiders, 31;
worms, 12, 13, 57, 164, 182, 185, 186, 190.
flight, 5, 7, 16, 17, 24, 30, 81, 91, 98, 99, 103, 115, 118, 147,
149, 153, 156, 161, 166, 168, 184, 195, 196, 197, 209.
friendliness when not disturbed, 10, 13, 23, 30, 40, 42, 45, 53,
59, 61, 64, 67, 83, 86, 89, 92, 95, 97, 100, 105, 126, 128,
129, 144, 148, 150-151, 153, 158, 171, 178, 180, 182-183, 185,
186, 197, 200, 201, 204.
legends about, 11, 105.
local names,--
blue jay, 6;
burrowing owl, 11;
bush-tit, 56;
California towhee, 92.
neighborly relations, 13, 25, 45-48, 49, 57-61, 62, 80, 86, 96,
100, 108, 115, 116, 124, 125, 126, 130, 138, 147, 171-174,
189-193, 204-205, 208-209.
nervousness, 9, 11, 22, 26, 34, 35, 42, 47, 53, 56, 61, 63, 64,
67, 70, 76, 81, 82, 87, 88, 97, 105, 117, 138, 139, 156,
166, 177, 180, 191, 208, 218.
Blackbird, Brewer's, 86-88, 117, 128.
afraid of a bath, 16.
attacking hawks and owls, 135, 139.
a jolly colony, 123, 124.
building, 124.
common in valley, 92.
curiosity about road-runner, 100.
following plow for grubs, 12, 13.
nervousness at nest, 87-88.
nesting sites, 86, 124.
pranks, 124.
repulsing shrike, 124, 125.
ruling dooryard, 86.
Blackbird, Red-winged, 14.
eating grubs in vineyard, 12-13.
following plow, 13.
nesting in marsh, 118.
Blackbird, Rusty, 86.
Blackbird, Yellow-headed,
in vineyard, 13-14.
on mustard, 14.
Blackbirds, 15, 114, 118, 120.
flocks riding cattle, hogs, and horses, 14.
Bluebird, Mexican, 187.
nesting site, 185.
second nest, 186.
Blue Jay. See Jay.
Blue Squawker. See Jay.
Brown Chippie. See Towhee, California.
Bunting, Indigo, 81.
Bunting, Lazuli, 81-83, 123, 189-193.
call, 190.
keeping out of quarrel, 45-46.
nest, 82, 216-217.
nesting site, 27, 82, 216.
song, 6, 44, 83, 117.
taking insects to nest, 82.
young fed by wren-tit, 189, 190.
Bush-tit, California, 28, 56, 59, 103-111, 117, 161, 162, 166.
building, 105-107, 108, 110, 184.
call notes, 109, 110.
common bird, 103.
destroys olive scale, 103.
legend of firefly lamps, 105.
local name, 56.
nest, 103, 104, 105.
nesting site, 103.
nest roof falls in, 106.
second nest better built, 107, 109.
snake in nest, 108.
Butcherbird. See Shrike.
Butterflies, migrating, 160.
California, southern, 147.
colors, 212.
marsh in, 118.
natural irrigation, 21.
sky, 67.
Canello, 2.
afraid of boggy land, Mexicans, and rattlesnakes, 2-3, 127-128.
indifferent to water snakes, 15.
made nervous by hummingbird, 7.
miring, 17-19.
visiting feathered tenants with, 123-139.
Chaparral, 5, 6, 55, 61, 94, 100, 103-104, 159, 167, 197, 201.
Chaparral cock. See Road-runner.
Chat, long-tailed, 163.
Chewink. See Towhee.
Chickadee, 103, 176.
Coast Mountains, 1, 4, 6, 15, 102, 104, 112, 113.
valley in, 1, 2, 4, 5, 20, 112.
at morning, 5, 68, 112, 137.
in evening, 19, 101, 102, 121, 122.
under moonlight, 102.
Coyote wolves,
barking, 91, 102.
chasing a dog, 119.
in eucalyptus, 214.
Crow,
killed bee-bird, 92.
nest, 212.
Dove, Mourning, 21, 118, 141, 161, 169, 219.
a gentle pair, 166.
brooding, 67.
friendliness, 42, 45.
nest, 216.
nesting site, 40, 166, 216.
perches, 57, 160.
superior airs of male, 116, 117.
timidity, 41, 42.
trailing, 215.
Eagle, 13.
Egret, White, 17.
Finch, Western House, 117, 160.
avoids shrike neighborhood, 126.
bathing, 16.
courtship, 90.
common birds, 92.
discussions, 28.
examining wren's nest, 25.
implicated in tragedy, 171-174.
nesting sites, 90, 96, 172, 186.
songs, 90.
stealing wren's material, 171.
using swallow's nest, 96.
Flicker, Red-shafted, 136-137, 160.
building, 136.
nesting site, 27, 136.
notes, 136.
works as if wound up, 136.
Flowers and Plants,
blue sage, 61, 147.
chilicothe, 168.
dodder, 89-90.
'fly flower,' 160.
forget-me-not, 128.
mallow, 128.
mustard, 14, 67, 119, 123, 127, 147.
on border of pond, 15.
poison oak, 167.
'poppy,' 160.
primrose, 69, 147.
wild celery, 120.
wild gooseberry, 147.
Flycatcher, 140.
in chaparral, 6.
Fog, 19, 68, 101, 112.
Goldfinch, 21, 44, 164, 215, 219.
feeding, 7.
nest, 23.
nest destroyed, 27.
nesting site, 184, 186.
note, 215.
Gnatcatcher, Western, 38-64, 81, 123, 161, 205.
building, 48-60, 61, 62.
calls, 43, 44, 45.
comical parents, 63, 64.
defending nest, 45, 57, 58.
egg broken by wren-tit, 46.
eggshell carried away, 46.
feeding young in new way, 63-64.
jaunty nervous manners, 38, 39, 40, 41, 44, 56, 63.
nest, 39, 41, 60, 168.
nesting site, 39, 48, 60, 61, 167.
nest moved, 60.
spelling each other, 43, 44, 62.
talkative, 41.
Gophers, 70, 136.
Grosbeak, Black-headed,
migrants, 8, 58.
song, 170.
Grosbeak, Blue, 120.
Hangbird. See Bush-tit.
Hawk, Buteo, building, 135.
more likely to eat gophers than birds, 136.
Hawk, Fish, 13.
Hawk, Sparrow, 131-135, 136.
chased by bee-bird, 91.
nesting site, 131.
snakes for breakfast, 132.
too small a front door, 131-134.
Hawks, 16, 86.
Heron, Green, 17.
Lark, Horned,
on roadsides, 10.
song, 10.
Horse, as help in observing, 3-4, 125, 201-204.
How-do-you-do Owl. See Owl, Burrowing.
Hummingbird, 147, 186.