128 Certain C alifornian Birds. 
there are groups in season of Evodium dotrys, the former group, as 
it is the smaller of the two, presumably the more recently estab- 
lished. Between Saratoga village and the Springs Hotel Szdadcea 
diploscypha and Ranunculus muricatus are at home. The latter, 
if one may indulge in a guess with its very rough and hook- 
terminated achenia in view, is likely to plant stations rapidly, and 
may in a few years be as numerously represented in our less fertile 
fields as some of the native species are in those surfaced with richer 
soil. 
Within a fortnight I have discovered the presence near by of a 
tall grass with 9 to 12 inch long panicles the divisions of which are 
pale green and closely appressed. 
This is Beckmannia eruceformis, which is credited to the northern 
part of the State, and a vast region beyond. 
NOTICES OF CERTAIN CALIFORNIAN BIRDS. 
BY WALTER E. BRYANT. 
The black swift ( Cypseloides niger) has been noted by but few 
observers in California. Most of the information has been obtained 
by Mr. Belding, but usually from the interior of the State; he, how- 
ever, saw a flock of about twenty near San Diego on May 21, 1881, 
and Mr. Emerson saw thirteen of these birds at Haywards on April 
19, 1885. Dr. Cooper saw a bird which he supposed to be this 
species at Santa Barbara in May, 1863. In the first week of July. 
1889, I saw several black swifts flying above the bluff, along the 
coast, ten miles southward from Monterey, and this year Mr. F. H. 
Holmes secured several specimens in the same locality and reports 
having seen them near Santa Clara, in both of which localities he 
believes they were breeding. No nests have actually been found in 
this State, but the eggs have been taken near the coast northward 
(Seattle). 
Notes upon the o¢currence of the blue-winged teal (Anas discors ) 
in California are given by Mr. Belding in the present volume. An- 
other specimen (male) was taken near Napa this year and presented — 
to the California Heatiemy of Sciences. 
