November 1927

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HUBERT WORK, SECRETARY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE STEPHEN T. MATHER, DIRECTOR YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES VOL. VI NOVEMBER, 1927

NO. ll This is the official publication of the Educational Department of Yosemite National Park. It is published each month by the National Park Service with the cooperation of the Yosemite Natural History Association, and its purpose is to supply dependable information on the natural history and scientific features of Yosemite N atioilal Park. The articles published herein are not copyrighted as it is intended that they shall be freely used by the press. Communications should be addressed to C. P. Russell, Park Naturalist, Yosemite National Park, California.

E. P. LEAVITT

Acting Superintendent

"LEARN TO READ THE TRAIL SIDE" YOSEMITE_ NATIONAL PARK. CALIF. 102 7

A PERSONAL INVITATION. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK IS YOURS! WE,OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WANT TO HELP YOU TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOUR PARK AND TO UNDERSTAND IT IN ITS I'VERY MOOD. ALL OF THE FOLLOW'

ING SERVICE IS OFFERED TO YOU free BY YOJR GOVERNMENT: Visit the Yosemite Mhlseum! Here you will learn the full story of the Park ---- what tools were used by the great Sculptor in carving this mighty granite-walled gorge; who lived here before the white man came : how the Days of Gold led to Yosemite 's discovery; how the pioneers prepared the way for you; and how the birds and mammals and trees and flowers live together in congenial communities waiting to make your acquaintance. Plan your trail trips on the large scale models in the Geography Room. The Yosemite Library in the museum provides references on all phases of Yosemite history and natural history. Popular lectures on Yosemite geology and other branches of natural history are given by nature guides at scheduled times each day. The nature guide on duty will be more than willing to answer your ques tions on any subject.

Go Afield with a Nature Guide! ' Take advantage of this free service that will,help you to know your Park A competent scientist will conduct you over Yosemite trails, and from him you may learn first hand of the native flowers, trees, birds, mammals, and geological features. See Schedule of Nature Guide Field Trips. Visit Glacier Point Lookout! From there you will obtain an unexcelled view of Yosemite's High Sierra. The binocular telescope will bring Mt. Lyell to within one third of a mile from where you stand; you can recognize friends climbing trails several miles away. The Nature Guide in attendance will help you to operate it and will explain what you see. A small library is at your command. You will enjoy the informal nightly campfire talks given here. Attend the Nature Guide Campfire Talks! In addition to the museum lectures members of the educational staff give talks as a part of the evening program t Camp Curry and Yosemite Lodge. Non-technical explanations of how' Yosemite came to be; what you may expect of Yosemite bears; how the local Indians lived; what birds you sec about your camps; what trout you will catch in Yosemite waters; how you may best visit the wonderland of the summit region; and scores of similar subjects are given by the National Park Service Nature Guides

ALL OF THESE OPPORTUNITIES ARE PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE BY YOUR GOVERNMENT. —TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM-

Vo _ _eslume VI November 3o, 1927 Number I i

THE CALAVARAS WARBLER

Enid Michael The Calaveras warbler (Cerminesting season among their beloved vora ruficapilla gutturalisi is the maples. warbler here considered. This warCalaveras` warblers feed rather bier's general coloration is yellow— favorite trees. Small yellow birds their clear yellow below and greenish yetreeding yellow M low above. A bluer by cap extends In suchu a situation would d u >° be most difficult to identify were over the crown and down the back they to remain silent. Fortunately, of the neck : the throat is clear ye]- however, for several months after low and there are no markings their arrival the Calaveras n arblers whatever of either black or white. are persistent singers. To the casThe female is similar to the male, teal observer all the warbler songs but the colors are somewhat duller. are pretty much alike. However, While the general coloration of the the trained ear seams a difference Calaveras is yellow, this warbler and by the trained ear one may lacks the brilliant golden Yellows of better differentiate the warblers the Yellow and Pilealated warblers. than by medium of night, for often Like all the common warblers of the singers may be hidden away in the Yosemite, the Calaveras warthe foliage, or then may he seen in biers are small birds, trimly built the glare of the sun when their and actively alert in their feeding colors would prove confusing. habits. From their general feeding when our warblers arrive in the habits It Is safe to assume that they valley they are In full song. As the feed almost entirely on insect life. songs of the different warblers are During the spring and summer all more or leas similar. It is great months six different species of warsport to walk out on a spring biers are to be found commonly in morning to exercise the ear In the the Yosemite valley. Each of the delicate art of Identifying the dlfdlfferent species has different forferent singers by sound alone. And aging areas and different tastes in then to verify the correctness of vegetational associations. The Calone's decisions one must then see averas warblers show a decided the singing bird : this too. is often preference for the maples and Neia task that requires patience. A logg oaks. They do not, however. (rood way to memories the son gs rf follow the oaks out onto the level birds is to choose a reeks of words valley floor, but stick to the forestthat seem to fit the sent'. To my covered talus slopes close to the ear the Calaveras n varhler seems to walls. When they first arrive in eav "witchle, witehie, wltchie." spring (somewhere about the beginThese words, rani'ly reneated in a nine of the last week In April) they shrill voics are fnllncreri by a cansnend their days among the :reshly are like thrill which ends the armst leafing oaks on the warm north A peei,liar thlna nibellt the Prole side of the valley. Later in the sea- :eras warbler= Is whi te they hahitsnn when the sun climbs higher end pally feed well tin In the trees they the days grow warm. many of these nest upon the g"na"el. All of our birds move across the valley into ether warblers nest at about the the shadow of the great smith well level of their principal f o raging to take up their stations for the lanes. 8 i

YOSEMITE NATURE NOTE& THE FERNS OF YOSEMITE

By Grace Benton Yosemite School of Field Natural i Iistory One of the most beautiful sights lets. An undercovering of close-set that Yosemite has to offer Its visihairs or over-Lapping scales enables tors is too often overlooked by these them to retain moisture, and when within this wonderland of nature. the dry season comes their tightly The great granite walls tower above rolled fronds are an added proteethe valley floor; the pines, the oaks, tion against heat and drougnt. and the firs, strive to reach the top; The Procesu of Reproduction the birds ano flowers present an The highest group of flowerless ever-changing vista of song and plants reproduces by "alternation color, but the ferns of Yosemite preof generations"; that is, the fern fer to hide their lacy loveliness of exists in two separate phases, the leaf and marvelous variety of form sexual and the non-sexual. The plant in the cool, shadowy thickets along with which we are familiar reprethe streams or in the rocky clefts sends the non-sexual stage and is of the canyon walls. called the Pert, sporophyte, since it As a family the ferns are older than bears, usually on the under side of the flowering plants, having first some of its leaves, small spore c :iees appeared in the early part of the or sporangia. Clusters of these Paleozoic era. During the Carsporangia are known as sari and boniferous age they reached their are often partly protected by a thin maximum of development and were covering known as the indusium. the dominant type of vegetation. The spores within these spore For the story of these early ferns cases take the place of the seed in a we are dependent upon the fossils flowering plant, and when they are of that day. Much of our coal has mature they are hurled forcibly been formed from fern groups no from the plant by the cleverly conlonger growing upon the earth. strueted sporangia. Thousands of Present day ferns made their apthese tiny spores, or germ cells, are pearance in the middle Mesozoic borne by a single frond, but on'y time and are best represented by those fortunate enough to land in the Polypodiapeae. Many interesta moist place are able to reproduce ing ferns have gradually diminBy cell divisior. the spore grows ished in number as the flowering rapidly and becomes a thin green plants have become more and more scale, the prothalluim or. sexual numerous. But for those who seek plant. On its under surface are them out, many beautiful specimens borne female organs, or archegonia, may still be seen, varying from the and male organs, or antheridia. dwarf ferns found well within the From the antheridia are released Arctic Circle to the magnificent tree spermatozoids with motile cilia ferns of the tropics. which enable them to swim in a In the temperate regions the largfilm of water and reach the archeer ferns, with their symmetrical, gonia where fertilization takes feather-like fronds, are most abunplace. The resulting cell, or zygote, dant in the Upper Sonoran and produces the new fern plant of the Transition Zones. They like cool, non-sexual type, sending up a first shady situations with plenty of waleaf and down a first root and also ter and grow most luxuriantly on a root by means of which the tiny well-protected northern exposures. plant receives nourishment for A, The smaller cliff ferns are less partime from the prothallium, or gameticular and flourish under rocky tophyte. As the new plant sends ledges where little veins of soil are out more lea+Ven the gametophyte sometimes moistened ' by tiny rivuwithers and disappears, having fin82 '

YOIEMITT NATURE NOTES

ished the work necessary for recoffee fern, is more common in the production. Upper Sonoran Zone about El PorThe California Grape Fern tal, but a few may be found among An interesting relative of the the rocks of Indian Canyon. It is "true ferns," found in,Yosemite, is the largest of the Pellaeas and the Botnychium californicum, or 'thrives in the brushy foothills. The California grape-fern of the Ophioloose, open plants with their strawglossaceae, or Adder's-tongue famcolored stalks and dull green to redily. This plant, like the fern, has dish-purple leaves are sometimes a life cycle of two well-marked called sheep fern because the tiny phases, the sporophyte and the stalks break easily Into small, gametophyte. In the conspicuous needle-like pieces and may pens sporophyte form the lacy, sterile trate the intestines if eaten by grazblade is surmounted by a long frig sheep. stalked fruiting panicle which withPellaea.s or bridge's cliffera and disappears after the spores brake, is a smaller, blue green have been shed. The California plant with narrow fronds, having grape-fern likes shade and moisture the pinnae mostly alternate. The and is most frequently found among sporangia extend about the pinnate the brackens along Tenaya creek, in an intra-marginal band, uncov well-shaded by the trees and shrubs. ered until curled by drought. It is Although fern-like in habits, its a fern of the Canadian zone, more thick leaves and fleshy stalks descommon in the rocky crevices about it from its more fragile SentinelLittle Dome a than tan in valley en the valley cousins. proper. But a few appear among The Polypodiaceae, or fern famthe boulders of Indian canyon and ily, may be divided according to the similar rocky slopes. type of sort into three general Pellaea densa, the Oregon cliffgroups: Those having sort without brake, sometimes known as Inds• indusia; those having the sort maran's Dream, grows a thousand.Peet ginal and covered by the altered, relower along the ledges and granite flexed lobe of the leaf, and those Pavements. It is smaller and. more having the sort not marginal, but abundant, occurring in thick, each covered with a special Indusbunchy clusters in both Transition ium. and Canadian zones. It is bright A representative of the first green in color, with triangular, trigroup, those having sort without inPinnate fronds upon which the sore dusts, found in Yosemite valley is are crowded in a continuous line. the Gymnogramma triangularis, or Bird 's-Foot Fern gold fern. The rigid, brownishPellaea ornithopus, or bird's-fout black stems grow in clusters supfern, is still more plentiful along porting the pentagonal • shaped the dryer valley walls, where it has blades, which are thickly covered on climbed from the upper Sonoran the under side with a deep yellow home. It is an evergreen plant, powder. The sore cover the backs dry and brittle, the lower clusters of the pinnae. The gold fern is a of pinnae resembling the print of lover of moist places and may be a bird's foot. The sort are well cob found in rocky crevices at the foot ered by the reflexed leaf margin :, of Yosemite Falls. This fern is sometimes called tea A number of representatives of fern, poison fern, or black fern, the second group, those having marsince it, too, may cause the death ginal sort covered by the reflex of sheep. margin of the frond, are plentiful Another small fern especially in the valley. Four of the Pellaeas adapted to the hot dry slopes of may be found along the rocky canyon walls with a southern exledges and canyon walls. posure, is cheilanthes intertexta. the coastal lip-fern. It is a lowThe Coffee Fern growing plant with densely clusPellaea andromedaefolia, or the tered stalks and crowded pinnae. It

'Y.4 MITE NATURE NOTES

is heavily.covered beneath with e fronds resemble,an eagle's wings reddish-brown wool and has the in It varies In height from a feu dusium formed by recurved mar• inches to several feet and is a fern gins. It is another typical uppei of waste places that are not toc Sonoran plant, which finds a place shaded. "It is found both in wood on the warm slopes of Indian canland and in the open fields; its fav yon. orate haunt is neither, but is tha t Quite opposite in its tastes from half-way ground where man leave, these drought-resisting cliff ferns off and nature begins, the ccpse of is the adiantum pedatum, or five the thicket:" (flute, Our Ferns it finger fern, whose filmy leaf tissue Their Haunts.) is dependent upon the mist and It has a sma ll smooth, black rootcoolness of protected recesses fo r stock that may send up fronds fif• existence. It is this fern of whict. teen or twenty feet from the parent John Muir says: "The finest of al' plant and the sort are borne on a the rock ferns is adiantum peda continuous marginal receptacle cov turn, lover of waterfalls and the ered by the double indusium. The lightest waftings of irised spray rootstocks are sometimes ground No Other Sierra fern is so constant and mixed with flour to make a companion of white spray-cov bread, while the young fronds may ered streams, or tells so well their be used as a vegetable resembling wild thundering music. The homes asparagus. The fronds n: ay also be it loves best are cave-like hollows used in tanning leather, packing beside the main falls, where it can fish and fruit, thatching houses and float its plumes on their dewy bedding stock. We are even told breath, safely sheltered from the that the sori, caught at midnight, heavy spray-laden blasts. Many of render the possessor invisible. It these moss-lined chambers, so is found in great abundance at, moist, and brightly colored with over the floor of the valley and ere rainbow light certain thousands tends well through the Canadian of these happy ferns clinging to the zone. John Muir tells us that "On emerald walls by the slightest the level sandy floors of Yosemite holds, reaching out the most wonvalley it often attains a height of derfully delicate fingered fronds on six to eight feet in fields thirty or dark, glossy stalks, sensitive, trem forty acres in extent, the magnifiulous, all alive, in an attitude of cent fronds outspread in a nearly eager attention; throbbing in uni horizontal position, forming a cell son with every motion and tone of ing beneath which one may walk the resounding waters, compliant erect in delightful mellow shade " to their faintest impulses, moving - (John Muir, "Our National Parks." each division of the frond separate p. 165.) ly at times as if fingering the mu Along the main traveled paths it sic, playing on invisible keys " no longer attains this splendid size. (John Muir, Our National Parks but in a few well protected thickets p. 167.) along Tenaya creek, above Mirror Although less common today lake, it may still be seen in all the than in the days of which John glory of earlier days. John Muir Muir writes, it may still be found pictures this fern with a loving in graceful beauty along the Mist hand when he says : "No other fern Trail, in Tenay and Indian can does so much for the color glory of yens, and below Sentinel rock. In autumn. with its browns and reds late July great clusters of this and yellows changing and blending beautiful fern adorn the higher Even after lying dead all winter crevices of the upper Ledge trail. beneath the snow it spreads a lively The Bracken or Common Brake brown mantle over the desolate A less dainty, but better known ground, until the young fronds, with and more widely distributed fern a noble display of faith and hope, is Pteris aquiline, the bracken or come rolling up into the light common brake, known in varying through the midst of the beautiful forms throughout the world. As its ruins." (John Muir, "Our National name implies, its wide spreading Parks. " p. 165.)

r°n11

The Brittle or Bladder Fern fern. In general contour the frond Perhaps the smallest nepresentahas somewhat the appearance of tive of the third group, those havthe lady fern, but it is darker In ing the sort covered with a special color, less graceful in appearance, indusium and not marginal, found and less finely tooth, with the Incommonly in Yosemite, is Cystopdusia strongly convex, but not teris fragills, the brittle or bladder toothed. It is common among th' fern. The sort of this species are rocks along any of the dryer trails roundish and separate, covered with in the parka hood-like indusium which is Next in size to the common thust back by the sporangia before bracken is Woodwardia radicans, maturity. the great chain fern, with its long This is truly a fragile, delicate staked but unbranched leaves, fern of shaded, rocky eitetions, standing in circular clumps. The where there is plenty of moisture. linear blades are deepy pinnatified It is a Transition species, somewith the estir' ach forming a h-liks times found in upper Sonoran and of the each side of the flourishes best Can a dian zones where moisture and in sp fey spots, It where there is soil conditions are favorable. This the-year yeseepage, here there s allsoil fen, Is common along the Ledge clusters be seen and beautiful Capitrail, in the upper part of Indian ers may be ste p below El Cap o Canyon and along the Mist trail, tan. A few scattered plants also appear between the stream and The Lady Fern Vernal Falls trail near Happy Isles. Another moisture-loving fern of The Attitudinal Variation of Ferns Yosemite is the Asplenium filix In studying the frequency of the femina. or,ady fern. This gracevarious species of ferns in Yosemite ful plant grows to vase-like clump= the trail from Happy Isles to along the shaded meadow streams, Clouds' Rest was selected as one sometimes climbing well up the affording considerable attitudinal canyons, where there is plenty !Al variation. Since most ferns grow water. It shows much variation in in more or less thick clusters, the size and shape of frond and in cutnumbers represent clumps of ferns. ting of pinnae, but presents always visible along the trail-side. Pterls a feathery and delicate airiness aquilina has the widest range and The sort are oblong to oval with greatest variation, with 3842 appearthe indusia toothed or ciliate on ances. Aspidium rigidum, while the free edge. It is common in much less frequent, was seen

shaded spots along the Ledge trail, times, most commonly along the in the marsh above Camp Curry, lower trail. Cystopteris fragilis apalong the rivet near Puhono bridge and well up Indian canyon, peared eighty-two times along the Mist trail and Asplenium MxA hardier, though less common femina was almost as frequent, apfern in Yosemite, is the Polysti. pearing seventy-two times Also chum munitum, or sworn fern. The along the Mist trail Adiantum peda • long, narrowsimply pinnate fronds turn was observed twenty-nine on their scaly, —oody stems bear times, in nearly every case in ur• sor•i in close medial rows, often accessible situations Along the more plentiful near the ends of the granite ledges above Nevada falls leaf. The plants occur In widely and near Little Yosemite Hikers' scattered places along stony slopes cam] Pellaea brldgesii was seen from the forest above Little Yotwenty times, while in widely scatsemite down to the hills near El tered situations Polystichum muntPortal. turn appeared eleven times. Four A more common rern of the Upbunches of Pellaea dense were per Sonoran and transition zones, noted in rocky crevices, and just found in half moist and partly beyond Happy Isles three large shaded situations, is the Aspidiurn clumps of Woodwardia radicans rigidum argutum, or rigid wood were noted

In the shaded meadows or along and its shade, a symbol of its con) the streams of the ledges and cansolitude," (W. R. Maxon—"Ferns Hs yons Aplenium filix-femida would a Hobby") and a never ending almost rival Pteris quilina in fresource of enjoyment. quency; certainly it would far outnumber the Aspidiun, rigidum arguBIBLIOGRAPHY turn of Clouds' Rest trail. Pellaea 1. At dams, LeroyAn Illustrat ed ornithopus and Cheilanthes interFlora of the Pacific States. Stantexta must, be sought on the sunny ford University Press, 1923. granite slopes of such places as 2. Comstock--Handbook of MsIndian canyon and Eagle creeK, ture Study. Doubleday, Page & Co. where they appear earlier in the New York, 1920. season in considerable numbers, 3 Hall, H. M. and C. C.—A YoThis slight survey of Yosemite semite Flora. Paul Elder and Cola ferns affords but a glimpse of a pany, San Francisco, 1912. most it teresting field, but it is pre4. Maxon, William R.—Ferns as a sented as a stepping stone to a Hobby. large and more intimate knowl 5. Jepson, Willis Linn—A Manual edge of the ferns of Mendocino of,.he Flowering Plants of Califnrcounty, where the Polypodiaceae nia. Sather Gate Bookshop, Berkeare "the very emblem of the forest, ley, Calif., 1925. How Long Will a Bear Stay Up a Tree? A GROUP of nature students were crossing Yosemite valley through the automobile camps when a camper attracted their attention to a black bear about forty feet up in a large yellow pine. According to the statements of nearby campers, this bear had gone up the tree the night before A man and boy had slept beneath the tree, and apparently the bear had been afraid to come down. The consequent interest of campers which resulted in crowds gathering at the foot of the tree had continued to keep the bear treed. Thus, if the campers' statement can be believed, the bear had been in the tree since 10 o'clock the preceding evening and accordingly had had to make himself comfortable for more than twelve hours. As the party watched the bear they noted that he had become tired of standing on his feel on a limb and had seated himself on his haunches with the front feet grasping an upper limb ' On returning to the spot an hour later the bear was still in the tree apparently taking a noon-day nap. Having searching out a large limb, he was lying flat, on his stomach with his four legs hanging down on all sides. His fiend also was flat on the limb and he was apparently snoozing. Unfortunately, it was not possible to see exactly how long the bear did stay in the tree. Undoubtedly hunger would eventually drive him down. The main point is that black bears are fairly at home in trees, and by using a number of dif- ' ferent postures they are able to make themselves comfortable.—H. C. Bryant.

FLYING SQUIRRELS IN YOSEMITE CAMPS

By H. C. Bryant Although everyone is pleased with table for birds. As they watched a the bright colors and interesting flying squirrel, which it proved to actions of chipmunks there is no be, scuttled down the side of the member of the squirrel family that tree with a scratching noise, cook is more attractive than the flying up a position on the feeding table squirrel. As a. rule this animal is and began gnawing chunks of dread but a name to the average person, while holding them with his front for though fairly common in forfeet. Hardly a week before a fly ested districts, it forages at night ing squirrel had been seen at the and consequently is seldom seen same location and had been apLumbermen report seeing flying preached with a flashlight so that squirrels flying out of the top of a only three feet separated the squirtree as it is felled and bird students rel from the observer. have the occasional experience o! Some four or five years ago some driving one out in broad daylight waitresses at Yosemite Lodge began from some old woodpecker hole in feeding flying squirrels on a sera stub. A few years ago nature tain beam along side of their tent. Soon thereafter squirrels came guides Yosemite were able to give regularly about 9 o'clock each evea thrill to their students by disturb ning to feed. Later the girls began ing a flying squirrel from his noon bringing cake theinstead squirrelsof bread would and day siesta in such an old stub thereafter leave the bread in preference to the cake. Those who have tried keeping fly Many a group of nature students ing squirrels as pets have always made their way to this particular considered them the very best. location to observe under an electric light these interesting animals as Many a camper has heard some they gathered their food. thing land on the roof of his ten' It should be understood that a and after a scuttling noise along the flying squirrel does not actually fly inclined surface they hear no more Itanyhasmovement no true win ofgs the nor ' is wings. there sound. Had they been able to However, the skin does give a suf watch the maker of the noise they ficient expanse of surface to supwould have discovered it a peculiar Port the animal in the air. In realflattened squirrel with soft fur, ity a flying squirrel volplanes from large eyes and a peculiar flattened lowergher point pointanother tree. tail. Furthermore, the anima. The observing camper in Yo would look nearly as wide as long Semite will be able to locate flyi..g because the skin stretches between squirrels by the scratching noise in the fore and hind legs. the side of trees or by noting some sizable creature sailing through the Only last week as a party sat air from one tree to another. Of about the campfire they saw some course the best opportunities are sort of an animal go sailing through aff whe orded the re around ying fl ssq omerrels are uifood ta •'c ble the air and go "plunk" against the customed to gather in their sears, side of a pine tree near a feeding for food.

UPP.

„ OLD HORNY” YOSEMITE'S REMARKABLE UNICORN BUCK

Scientists, and nature lovers alike, are much interested in this buck that carries a supernumerary antler. Apparent `y the third antler is shed and renewed annually, just as are the normalmembers of the animal's headgear. -,Pho.o by J. V. LLOYD

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FROM THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON OUT-DOOR RECREATION

Called by PRESIDENT COOLIDGE

"THAT THE CONFERENCE ENDORSE NATURE STUDY

EN zCHOOLS

AND THE EXTENSION OF THE NATURE STUDY IDEA TO EVERY AMERICAN SCHOOL AND FAMILY;... THAT THE ESTABLISH MENT OP MUSEUMS OF NATURAL HISTORY IN NATIONAL PARR WILL INCREASE THE EDUCATIONAL RECREATIONAL VALUE OP THI

rwxzs".—Resolution of the Conference.