VOL. I.] An Ornithological Rctrosfcct. 291 



Another bird of increasing scarcity and vvildness is the American 

 raven. I cannot say that I have ever seen it within this State. t)r. 



L i 



Cooper (1870) evidently considered it a bird of general distribution. 

 Mr. Belding during observations for the past fifteen years has met 

 with so few that he states'^ that it is " decidedly rare in Central 

 California," In 1850, my father tells ]ne, they were very common 

 along the roadside from San Francisco to San Mateo, and were ex- 

 ceedingly tame. The vulture he has no recollection of having 

 seen, but crows were common in Visitacion Valley (near San Fran- 

 cisco). The crow is still found in Marin County, but in Alameda 

 County I have not seen one for more than fifteen years. 



Eighteen years ago they nested at Berkeley in the old oaks which 

 are now standing by the University campus. It was not unusual 

 to find two or three nests in a single tree. The encroachment of 

 civilization has probably been the chief cause of the crow forsaking 

 its former haunts. 



The turkey vulture (common buzzard) and mourning dove, have 

 not decidedly changed their haunts within the past forty years, and 

 although neither are considered wild in regard to their fear of man, 

 still they are wilder than formerly. In those days all birds, includ- 

 ing the host of small ones, were tamer than now. 



The California partridge has been the most successful (if I 

 except the detested sparrows from Europe) in holding territory 

 after its occupancy by man, but in the more thickly settled commu- 

 nities they have steadily decreased in numbers and proportionately 

 increased in traits tending towards their protection. In the breed- 

 ing season, however, they are as completely off their guard as in 

 former years, and just as much at the mercy of the despicable camp- 

 ing party who murder all ages, sexes and conditions under the 

 flimsy plea that they "need meat." Can the human palate be so 

 per\^erted and a mind so shallow as to relish the flesh of a sitting 

 quail ! 



There has not, so far as I am aware, been a very marked de- 

 crease in the number of geese which annually visit California, but 

 the area over which they now feed is considerably less than in 

 1850. In the fall of that year, my father, while going from San 

 Francisco to San Jose, met with acres of white and gray geese near 



Land Birds of the Pacific District, 112, 



