42 



THE OSPREY. 



Cooper Ornitholoaical Club. 



NOR THEKX DIVISION. 



The Northern Division met October 2 at Stanford 

 I'niversitv. Notice was given of the death of Louis 

 W. Brokaw at Carmel, Ind., Sept. j. Mr. Brokaw 

 was an acti\e member of the Club, ha\ ing formerly 

 resided at Salinas, Cal., and proper resolutions of 

 respect and sympathy were adopted by the club, in 

 his memory The program consisted of the reading 

 of a paper from the Southern Division entitled 

 • Birds of the San Bernardino, Mountains,' by I-". J 

 Illingworth. R. C. McGregor of I'alo Alto then 

 read a paper entitled 



NEST AND EGCiS OF THE SAN HKNITO SPAKROW. 



■'The San Benito Islands, three in number, are 

 situated about twenty miles west of Cerros Island. 

 The two largest have each an area of several square 

 miles and are from 200 to 400 feet high. The islands 

 are quite dry during the summer season For nine 

 mouths almost no rain falls, while the porous and 

 rocky character of the soil precludes the existence of 

 springs or the formation of marshes and pools. The 

 flora is semi-desert in nature. Several species of 

 cacti and some small insular plants make up the 

 vegetation, there being nothing which attains the 

 size of a shrub or tree. Both the large islands are 

 very hilly and these have been cut up by the heavy 

 winter rains. The gullies so formed are often diffi- 

 cult or impossible to cross. It will thus be seen that 

 the home of A iiiiiifldrannts sain loruin is essentially 

 different from that of any of the salt marsh Am- 

 iiiodraiin. 



"Among the resident land birds may be recorded : 

 /■'(tlto perii:;iiiiiis lUin/inii, Pandion IiaU<cttts carohii- 

 ciisis, Corws corax simui/iis, Speotyto citiiuiilaria 

 livpogica, OtiHoris aplestris pallida, Calyptc costic and 

 Cnrpodaciis ii/cgri-oori. Several species of sea birds 

 such as petrels, auklets, oyster-catchers and gulls 

 nest in burrows, among the rocks or along shore. 



"The San Benito Sparrow far outnumbers all 

 other land birds taken together. It was the first bird 

 heard singing from its perch on an ai^a-:'! flower stalk 

 and when we landed it was found over the entire 

 island. Considering the number of birds that we 

 flushed from low bushes and their excited behavior 

 on being disturbed it was evident that eggs were 

 being incubated. Mr. H, B. Kaeding deserves the 

 credit of discovering the first nest of the bird. The 

 nest was on the ground, under a small bush and 

 seemed to be in process of construction. No eggs 

 were deposited during our stav. On March 30 I saw 

 a sparrow slip ipiietly out of a I'viiiiiii bush and fly 

 about twenty feet awa\- where it sat silently watching 

 me. The bush was small and so isolated from all 

 others that I felt confident that now was my time to 

 find the eggs. Most of the birds fly out of such large 

 clumps of brush that it is a hopeless task to look for 

 the nests In the present case, howe\er, there was 

 but little ground to examine so that 1 found the nest 

 with its three eggs without much trouble. Two 

 days later, as there were no more eggs, I took the nest 

 and contents. 



"The nest was sunken level with the ground, 

 which served to support the thin walls. The outside 

 is of large grass straws while the lining is of finer 

 grass and a few feathers. The three eggs measure 

 respectively .83X.58, .82x.r)i, .Mix. 60. They were 

 slightly incubated. They are well marked all over 

 with flecks and blotches of umber brown on a ground 

 color of faint Ijluish white. One egg has one or two 

 blackish hair lines on the large end. During our 



second visited to the island in July I found the third 

 nest which in materials and situation was similar to 

 the others. 



" Aniinodrai/iits saiiitoriiiii was provisionally de- 

 scribed by Dr. Coues from some mummified individ- 

 uals In the Key, 3rd edition, p. 364, he gives the 

 habitat as ' Lower California, Gulf Coast and 

 islands'. The species is restricted to the San Benito 

 Islands on the Pacific Ocean side of Lower California 

 and there is no reason for assigning it to the coast of 

 the peninsula It remained for Mr. Anthony to 

 secure skins of this bird and establish its habitat." 



Mr. McGregor exhibited a series of adults and 

 \oung of the San Benito Sparrow in connection with 

 his paper. The Northern Division meets at .Alameda 

 Nov. 6 — C. Barlow. .V,v'i'. 



SOI THICK N DIVISION 



The Southern Division met at the home of V. 'V\'. 

 ()wen at fiarvanza, Sept. 25, with ten members 

 present. |. Maurice Hatch was elected to active 

 membership. The Life History Committee reported 

 that schedules had been prepared for the use of the 

 committee in its work on the life history of the House 

 P'inch and its allies, and that the same would be sent 

 to numerous ornithologists. On motion it was de- 

 cided to hold the October meeting at 'Wilson's Peak 

 in the Sierra Madre Mountains, Oct. 30 and 31. 

 'Birds of the San Bernardino Mountains', was read 

 by the author. Mr. F. J. Illingworth, of Claremont. 

 — H()R.\CE A. Gayi.ord, St'i'v. 



Galitornia Department. 



EOITEl) IIV DONALD A. COHEN, ALAMEDA, CAL. 



Mr. Edmund Heller, of Riverside, has done con- 

 siderable collecting on the Colorado Desert this past 

 summer. 



Mr. H. W. (\uriger informs us of his intended 

 trip to Alaska next spring : leaving his home in 

 Sonoma the last of September, to be gone to the 

 Trinity County gold mines we are told. 



Mr. A r. Redington, of Santa Barbara, reports 

 the uncommon sight, of frequent occurrence in parts 

 of that county of flocks of Callipcpla valliiola CVal- 

 ley Partridge) feeding among the piles of dry kelp 

 along the ocean beach. 



Mr. A W. Johnson, of I'pper Lake is making an 

 extended sojourn in England. 



Mr. H. C. Johnson, manager of the pacific coast 

 branch of I'ope Manufacturing Co., is preparing to 

 move to Springfield, Mass. to accept the agency at 

 that place. 



Mr. 'W. O. Emerson and the California editor en- 

 joyed a drive from Hay wards to Palo Alto to attend 

 the Cooper Club meeting at Stanford University. 

 Specimens for skins were taken along the road and 

 on the home trip next day. But 31 varieties of birds 

 were noted, 4 of which were water birds. 



The shooting season opened Oct. i under the State 

 Law, but the Alameda and San Mateo County game 

 wardens gave widespread notice that it would be 

 illegal to kill Rail before the 15th of the month. 

 Cpon the advice of the Alameda County District At- 

 torney many parties paid no attention to the warning 

 and we have heard of no interference or arrests made 

 by game wardens. 



