30 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 13-No. 2 



Notes on the California Condor. 



BV CLAUK 1". STHEATOK. 



While engaged in stuciying the birds of Cali- 

 fornia for the past four years, I have taken an 

 interest in the study of the California Condor. 

 Only a few years past it was found common, 

 hut now nearly extinct. 



During my travels through all parts of the 

 state only three living specimens ever came 

 under my observation. They now rarely de- 

 scend from their mountain home, which is 

 chiefly in the more rugged peaks of the coast 

 range. 



Their habits seem to diller but little from 

 that smaller member of the family, the Turkey 

 Bu/./ard, and with these bii-ds I have iu every 

 instance seen them associ.ited. When once as- 

 cending a steep canon of the Santa Yuez moun- 

 tains and coming in view of their lofty sum- 

 mits, I saw a C'ondor on the wing circling 

 in the air high above my head. Below him 

 were a multitude of Turkey Buzzards with 

 wide spread wings. They were sailing around 

 appearing to have scc^nted a carcass of 

 some dead animal that might have been ly- 

 ing on the plain. As I drew nearer the sight 

 became a grander one. High above me, al- 

 most to the clouds, the great bird was soar- 

 ing, now descending, then rising withovit any 

 appaient movement of its mighty wings. He 

 seemed to glide with the ease of a falcon. I 

 watched him for fully twenty minutes, uutil he 

 linally disappeared behind the mountain tops 

 tar beyond. Such sights are few to a natural- 

 ist of our country, and I recorded it as one of 

 the most wonderful sights I have ever witness- 

 ed. In Biewer, Baird and Ridgway's work on 

 Xorth American Birds, '• The California Con- 

 dor is given as found in the least amount of 

 territory of any of the large raptorial biids of 

 the world." Only a few years since it was 

 found as far north as the Columbia river. I 

 have only found them iu two of the counties of 

 Southern California and from making many en- 

 ([uiries from practical observers I cannot be- 

 lieve at the present time that the bird can be 

 found only inside of a territory of about two 

 hundred miles square and that this limit is 

 gradually diminishing. 



Now the question arises, why has the bird 

 decreased in numbers so rapidly V 



The only reason that I can assign is that 

 while the stock grower on the ranges has suf- 

 fered from the ravages of bears and California 

 lious that it was a custom of the hearders to 



carry a bottle of poison with them and make 

 use of it on every carcass of a dead animal 

 found. The almost harmless Condor was usu- 

 ally the first to sutler. Whole flocks of these 

 birds may have perished from this cause, and 

 thus in a few years one of the largest birds of 

 flight of the world will be exterminated if some 

 measures are not taken for its preservation. 



A Few Days' Outing. 



BV KI.WIX A. CAfEN. 



Last May while visiting my friend, Mr. F. H. 

 Carpenter, at Rehoboth, Mass., we took a few 

 days to ramble through the woods and fields, 

 collecting what birds and eggs we came across 

 that we cared for. 



On the 17th we arose early and had wandered 

 leisurely along, securing a few small birds, un- 

 til about ten o\dock when we came upon an old 

 moss)- orchard of which many of the trees had 

 decayed and fallen or had been toppled over by 

 the winds. Here we found the Parula Warbler 

 {Compsothlypis ameriaina) in abundance, sing- 

 ing and flitting about from limb to limb and 

 tree to tree in great merriment. As I stood 

 gazing up among the mossy branches I saw 

 what proved to be a beautiful and well con- 

 cealed globular nest composed of iisiwa moss, 

 with which the tree was literally covered. It 

 was hanging about nine feet above the ground, 

 lined with a few horsehairs and bits of down, 

 and contained two newly laid eggs. We also 

 found many other nests in different stages of 

 completion. On the 21st I found another nest 

 of this species containing a set of four eggs, 

 attached to the twiggs of a small alder l)ush 

 two feet above the ground over a pool of water 

 about a foot in depth. These are the first in- 

 stances that I have known of this bird's breed- 

 ing so early iu the seasim iu Massachusetts, 

 never before having found a full set before the 

 first of June. 



The following day. May 18th, we visited the 

 colony of Fish Hawks {Pamliuii halimtus caro- 

 lineusis)^ already made famous in the pages 

 of the O. AXD O. and although, as we could 

 plainly see that someone had preceded us a few 

 days, we took four sets of three, two of two, 

 one of four and one coutaining but a single egg. 

 The set of four is of extremely rare oci'urrence. 



On tlie 19th while going through a hard 

 wood tract 1 saw a Hairy Woodpecker (/>/•(/- 

 obatfs villosus) fly past me and alight on a wild 

 ajjple tree within a few yards. Judging there 



