After having glanced at the cover design and noted, in the table of contents of this issue, that it is a picture of the park's "Christmas Tree" you probably wonder where this particular tree is located. This is the very beautiful Douglas Fir which stands on the lawn in front of the park's Administration Building at Longmire. People admire its symetrical beauty in summer - and it is worthy of such admiration. Yet in winter, its branches heavily laden with snow it presents an even more beautiful picture. The Christmas season finds it decorated with vari-colored lights, its apex crowned with a brilliant electrical star. As winter visitors to the park swing into the Longmire plaza few fail to exclaim over the beauty of this tree. (C.F.B.)

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For many years it has been believed that Porcupine were in Mt. Rainier Nat'l Park, but none had ever been seen. Numerous signs indicating their habitation along the cliff ledges above the White River on the east side of the park, have been found. Such positive proof as burrows with large refuse piles in front, trees peeled of their bark high above the ground, and even numerous quills have been found. Yet actual proof of their being seen had not been accomplished until this year on the evening of Sunday, June 30, 1935. On that evening Mr. V. Danielson, one of the power house operators and Ranger-Naturalist Danner on driving down the Yakima Park road towards the entrance observed a porcupine on the edge of the highway about three miles above the White River bridge. The animal did not seem particularly frightened, allowing the car to get almost opposite it before it darted down the embankment. Workings, believed to be that of the porcupine, have been observed on numerous occasions in the Stevens Canyon, though the animal itself has never been seen there. (Earl Danner)

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A Clark's Crow (Nucifraga columbiana), usually so lazy as to wait to be fed by visitors, surprised us one day at Paradise Valley when it swooped down like a hawk and picked a large meadow mouse from off its feet. In a moment the squirming rodent held by the powerful beak was high into the air. The place was filled with screams by the terrified and bewildered animal but the strong wings of the bird soon carried it out of sight and sound. (Julius Hoverson)

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On June 27th of this year a nest of the Pallid Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris arcticola) was found on the broad open flat of Burroughs Mt., (elevation of 7150 ft.) just a few feet from the rapidly melting snow banks. Slightly sunken in the dry pumice soil and lined neatly with dry grasses, the nest with four green and brown speckled eggs was nestled closely against a little mound of grass with taller grass tufts on the windward side. Though out in the open the nest was so well placed that it would have been readily passed by were it not for the fact that the mother bird, in an attempt to divert the observers attention, flew a few feet from the nest and with low chirps limped along with wings spread as though it were broken. The nest was observed again on July 3rd and found to contain four downy covered birds with wide open mouths eager to be fed. (Earl Danner)

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Modern radio and wireless are all encompassing but their messages are not picked up as completely as those of the sound system employed in the woods. As we entered a small valley near the Lake George lookout a hawk was seen to swoop down for a stray rodent. He missed his mark evidently for a continuous scream was heard in that vicinity. The signal was immediately picked up and repeated by others who had heard it. Similar squeaks and noises were repeated from every angle until the ancient cirque was filled with the reechoings of this unmistakable cry. Near us we heard the scurrying of small feet carrying the little bodies to safety. Within a half minute it would be a safe guess that every one of their kind in that particular area was safely hidden from aerial attacks. (Julius Hoverson)

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It is unfortunate that the park animals, which lose their fear of man in a considerable degree, should sometimes become the victims of their fearlessness. Last summer we suffered the highest death toll of the larger mammals for any season in park history. In June a bear cub was killed by a car on the Paradise highway. Later a doe, mother of one fawn, was injured on the West Side road. The most tragic of these accidents occurred near the Nisqually entrance when a doe was killed outright by an auto. This animal had two fawns, which eluded all attempts at capture by C.C.C. men so that they might be better cared for. Such accidents are sometimes the fault of motorists driving carelessly or too fast, but some times also the animal itself is to blame. Few visitors realize how erratic the actions of wild life may be on the highway, for an animal may leap directly in the path of a car. Though these accidents are in some measure unavoidable, they could be reduced to a minimum by slower and more careful driving on the Park roads. (A. A. Lindsey)