YOUNG WESTERN WOOD PEWEE, LAST FLEDGLING IN THE NEST. Photographed in Hetch Hetchy, August 3, 1911, by W. F. Badè.

On August 3, 1911, Mr. Robert M. Price and I found two nests on the banks of the Tuolumne in Hetch Hetchy. The young birds were still in the nest, but sufficiently fledged to hop out and fly short distances when alarmed by our approach. Whenever one of the youngsters essayed to fly, one of the parent birds got deftly under him, while in the air, and gave him a "boost" toward a new perch. The young had well-marked brownish wing bars.

"Do you know the blackened timber-do you know that racing stream

With the raw, right-angled log-jam at the end;

And the bar of sun-warmed shingle where a man may bask and dream

To the click of shod canoe-poles round the bend?

It is there that we are going with our rods and reels and traces, To a silent, smoky Indian that we know,

To a couch of new-pulled hemlock with the starlight on our faces, For the Red Gods call us out and we must go!"

-Kipling.

THE STEER'S HEAD FLOWER OF THE SIERRA NEVADA.

BY WILLIS LINN JEPSON.

The alpine vegetation of the Sierra Nevada includes many interesting and remarkable plants. Some of them are common at certain altitudes and with each recurring season delight the traveler on his high mountain journeys. Others are found only in a few remote localities or are rarely seen by the mountaineer. One of these rare plants is the Steer's Head Flower, known to botanists as Dicentra uniflora (Fig. 1.) It is a close relative of the Bleeding Heart of the gardens, which also belongs to the genus Dicentra.

The Steer's Head Flower as it occurs in the Sierra Nevada is known only in a few rather widely separated localities from the Yosemite Park northward to the region of Lake Tahoe and to Lassen Peak. It is a very small plant, only one and one-half to three inches high, and, except when in full flower, is so inconspicuous that it may readily be overlooked. The snow has scarcely gone from a slope before it has raised its solitary flower on a naked stalk two or three inches high; after a few days the stalks lie prostrate on the ground and the seed-pods begin to grow toward maturity. Its season of flowering is very brief and once the flowering has passed a sharp eye is needed to detect the few small finely cut leaves and the stalked seed-pod of this diminutive plant close against the brown rocky slope.

In the last days of July, while with the 1911 Outing of the Club, the writer was climbing Macomb Ridge between Tilden Lake and Stubblefield Cañon in the northeastern part of the Yosemite National Park. On this climb many Steer's Head Flowers were seen in great perfection. The altitude is about 9.400 to 9.700 feet.

FIG 1.

STEER'S HEAD FLOWER.

One or two or perhaps several scape-like stems arise from a cluster of carrot-shaped tubers. The tubers are crowned by numerous rice-grain bulblets, which separate readily from the root-crown. The figure is natural size.

FIG. 2.

A SINGLE FLOWER OF THE STEER'S HEAD.

The horns represent the two lower petals. Between them is shown a sepal ("forelock"), the other sepal of the pair being behind and invisible in the drawing. The "snout" is formed of the upper petals, which are prolonged downward into a terminal spoon-shaped process which covers the anthers and stigma. One of the petals is behind and thus invisible in the drawing. The figure is one and one-half times natural size.