The Season 



297 



migrants has already reached the Alameda 

 mud flats, Dowitchers and Curlews being 

 present in flocks, while Knots, Semi-pal- 

 mated and Black-bellied Plovers, Willets 

 and Godwits have appeared singly or in 

 small bands. Many of these wanderers are 

 still in summer plumage and are doubtless 

 the unsuccessful breeders that have been 

 free to begin their journeys because they 

 have no family cares. — Amelia S. Allen, 

 Berkeley, California. 



San Diego Region. — The nesting 

 season, always full of interest to the bird- 

 lover, has not been abnormal in this region. 

 A walk in May along streets bordered with 

 the fan-palm usually discloses the pendent 

 nests of the Hooded Oriole, and this year 

 they seemed more than ever in evidence. 

 A pair has built for many years in a tall old 

 palm at the entrance to a ranch on a subur- 

 ban street, in company with numerous 

 linnets. This year a colony of English 

 Sparrows was established in it, feeding 

 their young, before the Orioles arrived; 

 but this addition to the already large 

 population of the tree in no wise disturbed 

 the latter, and their neatly woven nest of 

 palm fiber soon swung in the breeze under 

 its protecting leaf, the young Orioles 

 appearing in due time in the yard of an 

 Audubon member a block away, where the 

 father had come for food during the early 

 summer. Early in June a party of Audu- 

 bon members watched with glasses an 

 interesting scene at the nest of a Black- 

 headed Grosbeak, as the male came to 

 relieve his mate. He interrupted his song 

 only to examine the eggs, apparently, 

 turn them over and take his place on the 

 nest. 



A rare find was the nest of the Lutescent 

 Warbler, with four eggs. Both birds were 

 seen close by, fidgeting anxiously as the 

 party approached. The nest, a dainty cup 

 of moss, dry grass and stems of the maiden- 

 hair fern, was set deeply in the bank just 

 above the trail, and concealed by dead 

 twigs and herbage. A later visit to the 

 spot showed the nest destroyed and 

 scattered about, with no trace of eggs. 

 A still later visit found the birds in the 



same locality, and the singing of the male 

 indicated they had again nested. 



Five Road-runners, catching grass- 

 hoppers in a stubble field, enlivened a 

 morning walk. Western Blue Grosbeaks 

 were found nesting in Laguna Canon on 

 June 5, where a group of sycamore trees 

 that heretofore have harbored many 

 Black-chinned Hummers' nests, this year 

 were occupied by Western Kingbirds, 

 along with the Bullock Orioles, of which 

 eight nests, built of horse-hair, were seen. 

 In another canon a group of large syca- 

 mores held twenty-two nests of the Great 

 Blue Heron, some of them containing half- 

 grown young. First definite record for 

 the southward migration of the Allen 

 Hummingbird was made on July 16, at 

 the mouth of Fish Canon, when a male 

 youngster was taken by a collector. 



In the mountains, the Olive-sided Fly- 

 catcher seemed more than usually con- 

 spicuous. A nest of the Ousel was located 

 under a bridge over the Santa Ana River, 

 in the San Bernardino Mountains; when 

 examined, by lifting a plank, a full-grown 

 youngster jumped into the brawling stream 

 as though he had never known a different 

 element, coming ashore fifty yards down 

 stream. A flower-covered, boggy hillside 

 nearby was the feeding-place of the 

 Calliope Hummer, the tiniest bird of 

 North America. Here, in their courting 

 antics, they buzzed almost into the face of 

 the observer. Nesting operations were just 

 beginning on June 22, when the females 

 were seen gathering spider-webs. 



The Blue-fronted Jay, one of the host of 

 mountain birds that invaded the valley 

 last winter, evidently found a satisfactory 

 home in Griffith Park, the largest of our 

 city parks, where natural conditions largely 

 prevail, for he has been seen feeding young 

 there and is apparently established. 



A beach visit on the last day of July 

 showed the fall migration of shore-birds 

 under way, with Hudsonian Curlew in the 

 van and scattered along the twenty miles 

 of beach traversed, while Heermann Gulls 

 also had reached this region, having bred 

 1,000 miles to the southward. — L. E. 

 Wyman, Los Angeles, Calif. 



