A-Birding on a Bronco

Part 1

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Books by Florence A. Merriam.

BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. In Riverside Library for Young People. Illustrated. 16mo, 75 cents.

MY SUMMER IN A MORMON VILLAGE. 16mo, $1.00.

A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. Illustrated. 16mo, $1.25.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK.

A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO

BY FLORENCE A. MERRIAM

I do invite you ... to my house ... after, we'll a-birding together. SHAKESPEARE.

ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1896

Copyright, 1896,

By FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.

Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

PREFATORY NOTE.

THE notes contained in this book were taken from March to May, 1889, and from March to July, 1894, at Twin Oaks in southern California. Twin Oaks is the post-office for the scattered ranch-houses in a small valley at the foot of one of the Coast Ranges, thirty-four miles north of San Diego, and twelve miles from the Pacific.

As no collecting was done, there is doubt about the identity of a few species; and their names are left blank or questioned in the list of birds referred to in the text. In cases where the plumage of the two sexes is practically identical, and only slight mention is made of the species, the sexes have sometimes been arbitrarily distinguished in the text.

Several of the articles have appeared before, in somewhat different form, in 'The Auk,' 'The Observer,' and 'Our Animal Friends;' all the others are published here for the first time.

The illustrations are from drawings of birds and nests by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and from photographs taken in the valley; together with some of eucalyptus-trees from Los Angeles, for the use of which I am indebted to the courtesy of Dr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

In the preparation of the book I have been kindly assisted by Miss Isabel Eaton, and have received from my brother, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, untiring criticism and advice.

FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.

LOCUST GROVE, N. Y., July 15, 1896.

CONTENTS.

PAGE I. OUR VALLEY 1 II. THE LITTLE LOVER 20 III. LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 38 IV. WAS IT A SEQUEL? 48 V. LITTLE PRISONERS IN THE TOWER 65 VI. HINTS BY THE WAY 81 VII. AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE 86 VIII. POCKET MAKERS 103 IX. THE BIG SYCAMORE 112 X. AMONG MY TENANTS 123 XI. AN UNNAMED BIRD 140 XII. HUMMERS 147 XIII. IN THE SHADE OF THE OAKS 159 XIV. A MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY 171 XV. HOW I HELPED BUILD A NEST 175 XVI. IN OUR NEIGHBOR'S DOOR-YARD 184 XVII. WHICH WAS THE MOTHER BIRD? 189 XVIII. A RARE BIRD 194 XIX. MY BLUE GUM GROVE 211

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Part 2

Mountain Billy under the Gnatcatcher's Oak. Frontispiece Our Valley 4 Head of Black-headed Grosbeak 8 Head of Rose-breasted Grosbeak 8 In Hot Pursuit (Brewer's Blackbird and Bee-birds) 13 The Little Lover (Western House Wren) 20 A Trying Moment (Western House Wren) 32 Nest of Western Gnatcatcher 39 Head of California Woodpecker 66 Head of Red-headed Woodpecker (Eastern) 66 Jacob and Bairdi visiting the Old Nest Tree 78 Head of Arizona Hooded Oriole 89 Head of Baltimore Oriole (Eastern) 89 Head of California Chewink 93 Head of Eastern Chewink 93 Valley Quail and Road-runner 99 Nest of the Bush-tit 104 Pocket Nest in an Oak 108 The Big Sycamore 114 Along the Line of Sycamores 124 Head of Black Phbe 129 Head of Eastern Phbe 129 The Little Hummer on her Bow-knot Nest 148 The Swing Nest of the Hummer 157 A Shady Bower 160 Head of Green-tailed Chewink 163 The Nosebag Nest (Vigors's Wren) 173 The Plain Titmouse in her Doorway 176 Which was the Mother Bird? (Wren-tit and Lazuli Buntings) 189 The Phainopeplas on the Pepper-tree 194 The Phainopepla's Nest in the Oak Brush Island 198 Eucalyptus Avenue, showing Pollarded Trees on the Right 212 Eucalyptus Wood stored for Market in a Eucalyptus Grove 214 Mountain Billy Deserted 220

BIRDS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT.

White Egret. Ardea egretta. Green Heron. Ardea virescens anthonyi. Spotted Sandpiper. Actitis macularia. Valley Quail. Callipepla californica vallicola. Mourning Dove. Zenaidura macroura. Turkey Vulture. Cathartes aura. Hawk. Buteo ----. Sparrow Hawk. Falco sparverius deserticolus. American Barn Owl. Strix pratincola. Western Horned Owl. Bubo virginianus subarcticus. Burrowing Owl. Speotyta cunicularia hypogæa. Road-runner. Geococcyx californianus. California Woodpecker. Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi. Red shafted Flicker. Colaptes cafer. Dusky Poor-will. Phalænoptilus nuttalli californicus. Black-chinned Hummingbird. Trochilus alexandri. Rufous Hummingbird. Selasphorus rufus. Arkansas Kingbird. Tyrannus verticalis. Cassin's Kingbird. Tyrannus vociferans. Black Phbe. Sayornis nigrescens. Western Wood Pewee. Contopus richardsonii. Flycatcher. Empidonax ----. Horned Lark. Otocoris alpestris chrysolæma. California Jay. Aphelocoma californica. American Crow. Corvus americanus. Yellow-headed Blackbird. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. Red-winged Blackbird. Agelaius phnicius ----. Arizona Hooded Oriole. Icterus cucullatus nelsoni. Bullock's Oriole. Icterus bullocki. Brewer's Blackbird. Scholocophagus cyanocephalus. Western House Finch. Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis. Goldfinch. Spinus ----. White-crowned Sparrow. Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli (?). Golden-crowned Sparrow. Zonotrichia coronata. Heerman's Song Sparrow. Melospiza fasciata heermanni (?). Spurred Towhee or Chewink. Pipilo maculatus megalonyx. Green-tailed Towhee. Pipilo chlorurus. California Towhee. Pipilo fuscus crissalis. Black-headed Grosbeak. Habia melanocephala. Western Blue Grosbeak. Guiraca cærulea eurhyncha. Lazuli Bunting. Passerina amna. Louisiana Tanager. Piranga ludoviciana. Cliff Swallow. Petrochelidon lunifrons. Phainopepla. Phainopepla nitens. White-rumped Shrike. Lanius ludovicianus excubitorides. Warbling Vireo. Vireo gilvus (?). Hutton's Vireo. Vireo huttoni (?). Least Vireo. Vireo bellii pusillus (?). Long-tailed Chat. Icteria virens longicauda. American Pipit. Anthus pensilvanicus. California Thrasher. Harporhynchus redivivus. Vigors's Wren. Thryothorus bewickii spilurus. Western House Wren. Troglodytes ædon aztecus. Plain Titmouse. Parus inornatus. Wren-tit. Chamæa fasciata. California Bush-tit. Psaltriparus minimus californicus. Western Gnatcatcher. Polioptila cærulea obscura. Varied Thrush or Oregon Robin. Hesperocichla nævia. Western Bluebird. Sialia mexicana occidentalis.

FOOTNOTE:

In classification and nomenclature this list conforms to the American Ornithologists' Union 'Check-List of North American Birds,' Second Edition, 1895. L. S. Foster, New York.

A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO.

OUR VALLEY.

"CLIMB the mountain back of the house and you can see the Pacific," the ranchman told me with a gleam in his eye; and later, when I had done that, from the top of a peak at the foot of the valley he pointed out the distant blue mountains of Mexico. Then he gave me his daughter's saddle horse to use as long as I was his guest, that I might explore the valley and study its birds to the best advantage. Before coming to California, I had known only the birds of New York and Massachusetts, and so was filled with eager enthusiasm at thought of spending the migration and nesting season in a new bird world.

I had no gun, but was armed with opera-glass and note-book, and had Ridgway's Manual to turn to in all my perplexities. Every morning, right after breakfast, my horse was brought to the door and I set out to make the rounds of the valley. I rode till dinner time, getting acquainted with the migrants as they came from the south, and calling at the more distant nests on the way. After dinner I would take my camp-stool and stroll, through the oaks at the head of the valley, for a quiet study of the nearer nests. Then once more my horse would be brought up for me to take a run before sunset; and at night I would identify my new birds and write up the notes of the day. What more could observer crave? The world was mine. I never spent a happier spring. The freedom and novelty of ranch life and the exhilaration of days spent in the saddle gave added zest to the delights of a new fauna. In my small valley circuit of a mile and a half, I made the acquaintance of about seventy-five birds, and without resort to the gun was able to name fifty-six of them.

My saddle horse, a white bronco who went by the musical name of Canello, had been broken by a Mexican whose cruelty had tamed the wild blood in his veins and left him with a fear of all swarthy skins. Now he could be ridden bareback by the little girls, with only a rope noose around his nose, and was warranted to stand still before a flock of birds so long as there was grass to eat. He was to be relied on as a horse of ripe, experience and mature judgment in matters of local danger. No power of bit or spur could induce him to set foot upon a piece of 'boggy land,' and to give me confidence one of the ranchman's sons said, "Wherever I've killed a rattlesnake from him he'll shy for years;" and went on to cite localities where a sudden, violent lurch had nearly sent him over Canello's head! What greater recommendation could I wish?

If the old horse had had any wayward impulses left, his Mexican bit would have subdued them. It would be impossible to use such an iron in the mouth of an eastern horse. They say the Mexicans sometimes break horses' jaws with it. From the middle of the bit, a flat bar of iron, three quarters of an inch wide, extended back four inches, lying on the horse's tongue or sticking into the roof of his mouth, according to the use of the curb--there was no other rein. The bit alone weighed sixteen ounces. The bridle, which came from Enseñada in Lower California, then the seat of a great gold excitement, was made of braided raw-hide. It was all hand work; there was not a buckle about it. The leather quirt at the end of the reins was the only whip necessary. When I left the ranch the bridle was presented to me, and it now hangs behind my study door, a proud trophy of my western life, and one that is looked upon with mingled admiration and horror by eastern horsemen.

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