jan., 1918 11

. EARLY AUTUMN BIRDS IN YOSEMITE VALLEY By JOSEPH MAILLIARD HIS YEAR (1917) it was the writer!s pleasant fortune .to pass six weeks

amid the Peac and beauty of the wonderful Yosemite--peaceful because 

past the season of turmoil of the falling waters--always beautiful and wondrous. It is true, the present writer had but just returned from .a long. and painful journey to the very portals of that unknown.. collecting ground from which no ornithologist has ever brought back notes;. his steps were slow and feeble and his limits much restricted, both geographically. and topographically. But he was able to pass at least a part of each and every.day in active search for leathered friends, and in setting down the names of the ones that proved to be "among those present", while at no hour were both eye and ear totally 0.b- livious. These six weeks of observation extended from August 18 to Septem- ber 29. As the Yosemite Valley is such an interesting locality, and as but litfie seems to have been written upon its bird life save in a more or less incidental or casual way--and that principally of the spring or early summer. time--an ac- count of some of the birds steadily looked for and noted during a fairly long

period'in the early fall should be of some value. It must be borne in mind, how- 

ever, that the following notes apply only to the "floor" of the valley, which extends from a couple of miles below ()vest of) Yosemite Village to the Happy .. Isles and up Tenaya Canyon as far as Mirror Lake; the latter is but a hundred' feet or so above the floor proper, no.t enough difference in elevation to.cut any

figure, and connected with it by a comparatively gentle slope. 

A, mere list of the birds would likely prove unattractive to a majority of our r. eaders. Yet a .list has its uses as a means of recording the presence of cer- tain birds in definite localities at certain times; itis not only of assistance to the student of bird migration but is of value, as well, to persons who may cover the ground in the future,.and of interest .to those who have been over it in the past. For these reasons a list will be found at the end of this article, giving those birds noted that are not. mentioned in the lists of Yosemite birds to which the writer has access. These are ,as fol10vs: 1893. Emerson, W.O. Random Bird-notes from Merced Bi g Trees and yosemite Valley. Zoe, iv, July, 1893, pp. 176-182. ' ' 1904. Widmann, O. Yosemite Valley Birds. Auk, xxi, 'January, i904, pp. 66-73.' 1911. Grinnell, J. Early Summer Birds in Yosemite Valley. Sierra Club BulletiN, 'wl, June, 1911, pp. 118-124. There are two or three other short articles about Yosemite birds but hardly, o be called lists, and about every variety of bird touched upon is included in the three papers named. So many people are familiar with the Yosemite 'Valley tha't it seem, unne. cessa.y to describe it here at any length; but for .the benefit of those who have not had the opportunity to visit the spot it may sufice to say that it is a par ..of the valley of th Merced River, up vhose narro'w canyon for the greater

part of its 79 miles a railroad parallels the stream. The grade is so compara- 
tively gentle, in' spite of the hilly country through which the river flows, that 

the track bed is never more than a few yards, or at most a few rods, from 'the water. At the terminus of the railway the canyon becomes more rugged and the grade stiffens, while the stream is broken into short .cataracts and low falls,

continuing this way, while a highway takes the place of the railroad, for about