September 8, 1925

Fo1umeIV September 8, 1925 Number 16

VACATION-LANb IN OUR HOMES

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Few of us are fortunate enough to spend more than a short vacation each year in our mountain playgrounds. : row many of us, as we stood upon the heights and felt the thrill of fellowship that comes with first-hand acquaintance;with the birds, the flowers, the trees and the mountains themselves, have wished that the inspiring influence of these associations could be with us throughout the year in our every'day life. Our government is doing its part to help us to more thoroughly enjoy and understand our great playgrounds, the National Parks. In Yosemite we find a splendid museum and a corps of naturalists who conduct daily field trips along the trailsides and who deliver evening campfire lectures on a wide variety of natural history subjects. But why should we be satisfied with but an introduction to the trailsides of our beloved Sierra? ' Is there no way in which we may continue our friendship with the Big Country during each month and each week of the year? There is a way! Lovers of the California mountains have organized to interpret and present in popular form all of the manifestations of Nature of the Sierras and more particularly of Yosemite National Park. Primarily the Yosemite NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION concerns itself with the living things of the Yosemite region; yet it must necessarily be a factor in inspiring a regard for Anferican Wild Life in general. Yosemite Nature Notes, which has been published in mimeographed form by the Park Naturalist for a number of years, has been adopted as the official organ of the Association. Cooperating with the government, the Association prints "Yosemite Nature Notes" weekly during June, July, and August and monthly throughout the remainder of the year, each of the twenty-four issues being sent to all members. If you are one of the hundreds of thousands who love Yosemite, you will wish to keep in touch with her through the Association. There are hundreds of thousands of others who have no conception of the big message of the Out-of-doors. You will want those uninitiated to learn of what the Park has to offer. Ad now! Fill out the enclosed application for membership and mail it with a check or money order for $z.00 to The Park Naturalist,.Yosemite. National Park, California. Every cent of the $a.00 will be devoted to keeping you in touch with your Yosemite.

VolumeIV September 8, 1925 Number 16

A MYSTERIOUS FREAK

By C. P. Russell Park Naturalist, Yosemite National Park T HIr ENGULFING tendency of trees has been dealt with in previous articles in "Yosemite Nature Notes, " but we believe the prize instance of such tree behavior is here recorded. What would you think should you come upon the massive antlers of a Roosevelt Elk protruding evenly from a growing forest tree? Probably you would at first he doubtful, and like many Yosemite Museum visitors who view the freak, you would declare, "It 's a fake. " However, one look at the split side of the sectional tree trunk is convincing. The elk skull itself there revealed, completely imbedded in sound wood. No, it is no relic of man's nature faking..1n Indian woodchopper engaged In the work of felling redwoods h oSt' i is. Calif made the Strange find. The tree in which Ihi antlers were imboddea was grnwiug Mndrnaa and the horns wen upside down with the tips torlinc on Idle ground. It is not 111 prising then that a portion of ILt points arc decayed—rather the surprise lies In the fact that so lunch cif the perishable structures have remained Intact through the Imnrlrerl or more years since the flee claim d them. Even had weather failed in their destruction. ftnt would lie]iieve that gnawing rodents would have reduced then; to ragged stnhs, at least. The tree was chopped down and Iho seetfcn of the trunk containing the antlers was sawed out. One fide of the section was split off And the intact c}cull revealed in the tree 's heartwood. Growth rings glove that more than a hundred yiai•s him elapsed since the engulfing Began. Inid the elk hull entangle hl~s antlers in the fork of the tree? 'ihc Position of the skull and the condition of the wood would inchcote that this is hardly the esolauatic.n. Because the antlers were found with the tips resting upon tho ground it seems more reas,enable to believe that the Mat-irons. as a seedling, grew from a spot directly under the skull. As it reached upward it 's leader found a hole through the, bony obstruction and so at first the skull surrounded the tree. As years passed end the Madrona added to its girth and height, the skull was slowly overgrown. Through the Pacific Lumber idompany the department of forestry of the University of California came in potisession of the unique mule. This institul ion generously loaned it to the Yosemite Museum

YOHEMITE NATURE NOTffi Slow Growing Oak Encompasses Head of Swift Moving Elk This buck tackled an oak. Woodsmen have presented to Yosemite National Park Museum this curiosity, the skull and horns of u Roosevelt elk, completely embedded in an oak tree. The elk 's skull can be seen in the heart of the tree, the horns extending as if they grew out of the tree. Park naturalists say the tree is almost 100 years old. The elk must have tangled with it when it was a small sapling. Being unable to extricate himself, he died with his horns locked in tIi tree, and as the decades passed the oak completely surrounded the skull. —J. V. Lloyd photo.

A HALF MILLION TROUT PLANTED IN YOSEMITE

By H. C. Bryant ON FRIDAY, July 17, a fish car of the California Fish and Game Commission containing a half million trout fingerlings arrived at El Portal, this being the first shipment for this season to the park. The baby fish were in excellent condition and were quickly moved it, their new homes in Yosemite streams. Those claiming the proud lineage of the Rainbow species were sent high into the mountains. Eastern Brook also spent the night traveling by truck to high mountain meadows. More than half of the shipment was placed in the Merced river to care for the intensive fishing to which it is subject. Loch Leven and Brown Trout have helped to improve fishing on the floor of the valley so that even the amateur is able to make worthwhile catches. A visit to shallow water along the river since the plantings were made shows numerous little fish, active and happy in their new home. The dollar angling Iicense contributed by the fisherman makes these restocking projects possible. Another carload is expected later.In the season.

DOES A RUBBER BOA CONSTRICT?

By C. P. RUSSELL

• VERY

summer the Yosemite Museum exhibits a number of the little snakes called rubber boas or "double ended snakes" (.Charina •bttae bottae). They are of more than passing interest for a number.I reasons. For instance, they belong to that great family of conrlcting snakes called Boidae. They are, in fact, the most northern presentatives of this remarkable snake family of the tropics; specslens have been found as far north as King county, Washington. But while their anatomical chart titers clearly place them among as, naturalists at the Yosemite Useum lave never noted in them habit of feeding that would indite a Boa relationship. Neither ave we found a reference :o nbSrvations on their method of tekg food. It was than with considable thrill that on August 4 the rk naturalist witnessed a small bber Boa swallow a lizard, t?erronotus palmeri. A number of the alligator lizards ad been placed in the same cage lth the Boas for the lizards came if such size that it seemed imposIble that the little snakes could arm them. How the capture was fleeted remains unknown, but hen my attention was called to the proceedings a fourteen-inch Boa (Id a ten inch lizard. Life in the ',card was not quite extinct, but e two loops of the snake' s body town around the lizard's middle ett no chance of escape, and no 'fiance of retaining life. Censtrletd indeed' The muscular contraci,lons of the shake 's body caused the hint and hind ends of the lizard's i. ody to puff out on either side of he constriction like two attached. Inks of twiner wurst. As I watched tha snake introUced the lizard's snout into Its outh. With much maneuvering he Boa 's jaws were dislocated at elr junction and the bones of the •Wer jaw also dislocated at thei r hint ends Then the impossible. appened. The lizard 's head which neared to be twice the width of

A CONSTRICTOR

he snake ' s head was engulfed. CerInly it seemed utterly Impossible at the swallowing could proceed The Rubber Boa's head and tall ther, for the lizard 's body just look so much alike that the reptile 1 Ind the front legs was puffed lane been termed "Double Ended 't to three tunes th,e diameter of Snake," y, snake 's throat. But the sus- 'lees had only begun. The Boa's tucked the other reptile `, netricting folds loosened their further and ushing grip and the Huf finess of further Into his stomach. He now e lizard's hotly disappeared. With presented a stuffed appearance, inreat effort Charina further esdeed. The entire swallowing proanded his jaws and drew in his cess was accomplished In fifteen •roy until the front legs disap° minutes. With one-eighth of an. Oared. With astonishing rapidity inch of tail protruding from bee body continued to move into tween his jaws the tubber Boa he little snake and in ten m'.nburrowed into the sand of his cage tee the hind legs disappeared., and there I suppose he will remain here then r,mained about six until his heavy meal is digested. nohes of slender lizard tall to conAre you convinced that nor Boa me. By gripping this elongated of the Sierras is as much a conrgan with his jaws the Boa actustricter as are his enormous rela11y crawled up the tail and so tives of the tropics?

AFIELD WITH THE NATURE GUIDES PINE: GROSBEAK IS STUDIED RT

nd there they will aleep Inrougn

SCHOOL GRO(!P

that -crows period when food is should a visitor to Yosemite N%tsei.rce. Except n the (t.v of tional Park ask where a water mothers with small e iLS, I Icy 'g ill ouzel or a rosy finch could be found sleep aline, Ito ir pro sent piggli lia nature guide could give directions 1'ess results ir their aeclmr,Iating t which would probably help in the heaty layer of fat and tloa stilt finding of the bird Such directione plus of nour ishment :'eves to beer would not be so easy should one them revel until they ag,riu :nn+ ask for the pine grosbeak. Only feed.—C. P. Russell. occasionally is this bird found. As. JG it is it nesting bird of the timber

A REPINED CHIPMUNK

line belt it is most likely to he Many l;urnirn befn;,s nerve the hit seen in or near hemlock forests shat the 'mo t s if a curia fnuntai'r Occasionally one is seen in the canappeal solely to them Thin sll yon between Tuolumne Meadows s not elwr;ys the case t,oulrl hi and Glen Aulin near Tuolumne gath e red Horn an Wis err';;lion m rrl~ Falls. One was a young b i rd which jriTuolumne Meadow-s. A 'I' aho.. called incessantly its it fol 'owed its chipmunk stns seen te run r-a r rot" parent. The es)) was a double not.. to the edge cf a soda spring Titre,. the second h i gher pitched than the he e l ol+perl and reached down lint first, which had the quality of the it ater lentil to drink of the drool note of a hnhv black-headed Broslirruid _After ttkinO' a few ens, beak. The flntterinr' wings ne the

lo's's he licked his mouth kith parent fed, assured the crowd thin L;.0 rri1 1 elislt.and ran atvay' I;. It was a young bird The nine gips1l. Hardwood beak is a. heavy-set bird with short,.14 heavy bill and may he eirsily d i..- A 1 I(ANId hilly LAR1,A tinMtuished from the Townsend soliIN A SODA SPRING tamea bird often seen in aioiilnr Three living crane fl)- Aril c i tnat;nns. The red h ead of th.. t•; ere found in a soda spring in male is replaced by Yellow in the 'Tuolumne Mead, ws Thee semi), female and young. in le hr'allhy and were of aIar" g " Nowhere In the Sierra is the pin,' email-is being Whom an inch;red grosbeak a common bird. For year:, fr nrrh 1-rig. They were of a ligl~r egg rollertots view with each other l-rntrn color with the segmen r )itir,., in a search for the nest end eggs. rl';tide d, fined. in :r Heath'T'inaPv a ~,'~.. Frermiseo man ideated fw-r. ileer] tines Were found Whe'

1' a nest in the Tahoe district near 1111iy;iter provers toxic or w'hetlt,'' Pvrao'd Penh Wit hout really dr-;rrh inns Cue to some other eons searching for th is bird the seh,+rd could not he del l rminrd it ~rfll groin was fortunate enonnh fn find he inreresling to. ^e these lane :i ItThe known rarity of the species Iimi r e :uitdts, providing Ihat e :m made the exnerienee the more npbr i,roughl about—ft H. lt,irtt,r'rnl nrer i ated-.Nn matte'' how long :t :14;Ynersnn mar' he a student of nature THE f.r+A VD CANTON OF TI-II? there are always more raritiee to hf

TUOLUMNE RIVER

searched ou1 acrd studied. Even to Nearly all the visitors to Yosent i t the pro fessional bird student th e Toile,. li re first impressed with the si ght of a nine gros beak brings a towering cliffs which seem to bons thrill,—H. C. RRYANT. directly overhead and which seen, to stand so close together one feel REARS PRI:PARrNG that they mi ght topple down and

FOR WINTER SLEEP

eru=h the whole vaiiey. What would The season of beer piggishness has he the imnress i en if one were driven again arrived. Tourists ]rave not Rivet-11v from the plains to a gor'n rifficuity in viewing bears now for Ines than it nuarter mile wide and they come in numbers to the hear higher by n thousand feet and mnrr' feeding p l atform stud to the old than Yosemite Va 11ev's cliffs? The garbage dump. N et only at night Muir Gorge in the Tuolumne do they make their forays Early fs a,n'h a ulcer and even eft, ' every afternoon thev come out from mending mu ch time in speetaeiii, i their retreats in the talus slopes scenery in the Serra one is lirt" and boldly make their ways to nrr'nared for the treat of ata.ndinr garbage vans, the meat market, re-,., the bottom there and looking ern sorts, camps and dwellings,. VisThe Grand Ga'n'nn of the Tuolumi,i idorfi who retake the trip to the la.; its waterfalls and cliffs hot no feeding platform are invariably nome^dows. Tt is a thousand fee r warded in seeing numbers of the hi gher than Yosemite and so is t11~ animals end nisiinfrequently th ey natural home of the su_'ar nit., ','loess cossets between the beasts, which there erow.s to tremendnn= which fi ghts clearly dcraonstr^"e s ize an& beauty. Also the inoenthat it is no ordinary summer hpceder is found there abundantly in petite that causes them to forget. large specimens which seem to n i their mannerstempt to fit themselves nrnportinn Iosernile bears are gorgin g: ately Into the magnitude of thci' themselves in preparation for their snrrnundings It is not far heyon'l long winter feast. Early in TlecemWnterw'heel fells where these n0,9i ter most of them will retire to linnal wonders may be found—TI', snug caves in our many rock piles is id Ti Keck.

'YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION ITS PURPOSES

To gather and disseminate information on the wild-life of the Sierras. To develop and enlarge the Yosemite Museum (in co/ ation with the National Park Service) and to establish sub-, ry units, such as the Glacier Point lookout and branches of ilar nature. To promote the educational work of the Yosemite Nature Guide Service. To publish (in cooperation with,the U. S. National Park Service) "Yosemite Nature Notes". To study living conditions, past and present, of the Indians of the Yosemite region. To maintain in. Yosemite Valley a library of historical, ' scientific, and popular interest. To further scientific investigation along lines of greatest popular intere 't and to publish, -from time to time, bulletins of non-technical nature. To strictly limit the activities of the association to purposes which shall be scientific and educational, in - order that the organization shall not,be operated for profit.

AY WE SEND YOU EACH ISSUE OF YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES?

W our check for $2.00 sent to the Park Naturalist, Yosemite ional Park, will help to pay the cost. of its publication for year and make you a member of the Yosemite Natural ory Association for the same period.

M THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON OUTDOOR RECREATION

Called by PRESIDENT COOLIDGE

AT THE CONFERENCE ENDORSE NATURE STUDY IN SCHOOLS

THE EXTENSION OF THE NATURE STUDY IDEA TO EVERY ERICAN SCHOOL AND FAMILY; THAT THE ESTABLISHT OF MUSEUMS OF NATURAL HISTORY IN NATIONAL PARIS INCREASE THE EDUCATIONAL RECREATIONAL VALUE OF THE

".—Resolution of the Conference.