134 



THE OSPREY. 



A GROWING HERON ROOKERY. 



A colony of about thirty Black-crowned Night 

 Herons nested in some heavy timber about five 

 miles west of Neligh last year. This year about 

 Iwirc as inauy arrived promptly on April i6 and are 

 breeding there. — Merritt Gary, A\-lii^h, A^eb. 



GalHornia DeDartment. 



QUAILS GOING TO ROOST. 

 While hunting late one evening a bevy of Scaled 

 Partridges were seen coming out of the sage brush 

 and running toward a row of 'huck-berry' trees. 

 Their calling and clucking first attracted my atten- 

 tion to them. It was kept up incessantly. As each 

 ' (juail ' came near the ' berry ' trees it would rise and 

 fly over the first few into the last tree in the row. 

 Here they would alight in the center of the tree and, 

 after some fluttermg, pick out a suitable perch and 

 settle down. This continued until the whole bunch 

 was in the tree. Then clucking and fluttering gradu- 

 ally subsided until all was quiet. Most of the 

 perches selected were near the center of the tree and 

 six or more feet from the ground. There was a pre- 

 cision and regularity about their running and flying 

 that seemed quite military. The tree had evidently 

 served as a roosting place for some time. — F. C. 

 WiLLARD, Totnhstotie, A. T. 



CAPTURE OF A CALIFORNIA CONDOR. 



I came into possession of a live Condor {Pseudo- 

 gryphiis califcrniiinus) rather unexpectedly on March 

 4, 1898. One of the ranchers near the San Gabriel 

 River canyon made a short prospecting trip into the 

 Sierra Madre Mountains following that stream, and 

 while exploring a side canyon came upon the bird, 

 with a broken wing but full of fight. He managed 

 to get a gunny sack over it and lashing it firmly with 

 rope, brought it out without damaging a feather. 

 For a week it was staked out on the ranch, upon a 

 diet of jack rabbit, when I learned of the bird and 

 succeeded in buying it. I kept it several days staked 

 out in a back yard feeding it scraps of meat and 

 later liver, which it seemed to prefer. The large 

 bird attracted much attention, and it soon became 

 accustomed to human company. 



My arrangements to have him photographed were 

 too late. His death was due to a small boy with 

 a wheelbarrow who came within the circle of his 

 reach ; the bird jumping on and over the wheel- 

 barrow and becoming entangled in the wheel, so that 

 in the ensuing fracas a leg was broken, which neces- 

 sitated my killing the bird to put it out of misery. 



Upon dissection the wing showed no shot or bullet 

 marks and had evidently been broken by accident. 

 The bird would undoubtedly soon have been able to fly. 

 The white marking under the wings, so noticeable 

 when the bird is sailing above, were almost complete, 

 showing a bird almost reaching maturity, though the 

 skin of the head was still dark and covered with 

 down. The eyes were brown, almost black, except 

 when seen in a good light. The measurements taken 

 were as follows : Length, 3 feet, 8 inches ; spread, 

 9 feet ; wing, 2 feet, 8 inches. Its weight after death 

 was i5J^ pounds. 



This vulture is rarely seen in this part of Los 

 Angeles County, although each year someone reports 

 seeing a pair about Mount Wilson and the higher 

 ranges beyond. Personally I have but once identified 

 the bird in its wild state, although I often spend three 

 weeks at a time among the higher peaks where I 

 constantly keep on the lookout for it. A Golden 

 Eagle or common Turkey Vulture are often un- 

 doubtedly misidentified as the Condor. — F"rank S. 

 Daggett, Pasadena, Cat. 



COOPER ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



The Northern Division met at I^alo Alto March 5, 

 with several visitors present. The resignations of 

 Walter E. Bryant and Miss Hattie E. Wilson as 

 active members were accepted. The names of J. M. 

 Welch of Copperopolis and W W. Price of Stan- 

 ford University were proposed for membership. 

 Resolutions favoring the election of Walter E. Bry- 

 ant to honorary membership in the club were intro- 

 duced, passed unanimously and forwarded to the 

 Southern Division for action. Three Southern Di- 

 vision reports and eight papers from that Division 

 were read after which Mr. W. W. Price gave an en- 

 tertaining talk on The Birds of Pyramid Peak, El 

 Dorado Co., Cal.,' illustrating it with numerous skins 

 and charts. Mr. R. H. Beck gave a brief talk on 

 the Galapagos Islands and exhibited a series of 

 photographs from these islands. 



SOUTHERN DIVISION. 



Met at Highland Park Jan. 29. A vote of thanks 

 was extended to the Michigan Ornithological Club 

 for notes on the Caypodaci. The Secretary was in- 

 structed to extend the sympathy of the Club to Mr. 

 F. S. Daggett on account of the recent death of his 

 son, and to Mr. F. Stephens, whose wife died while 

 he was absent on a collecting trip to the desert ; W. 

 B. Judson exhibited an abnormally colored specimen 

 of Valley P'artridge. Its plumage was intermediate 

 between that of the ordinary male and female. Dis- 

 section showed the bird to possess a well-developed 

 ovary, situated as usual, but on the right side a fully 

 formed testis. 



The Southern Division met Feb. 26 at the home 

 of H. A. Gaylord in Pasadena. Messrs. B. H. 

 Swales and Bert Robbins were elected to active 

 membership in the Club. H. S. Swarth who has 

 gone to Alaska was given an indefinite leave of 

 absence. Three papers were read : ' An Experience 

 with the White-throated Swift' by Ed. Simmons, 

 'The Cassin's Kingbird' by J. M. Hatch, and 'The 

 Swainson's Hawk as Observed Around Santa Monica, 

 Cal.' by L. Chambers. 



The March meeting was held March 26 at the 

 home of J. Grinnell in Pasadena. Several visitors 

 were present. The resignation of A. J. Cook of 

 Claremont was read and accepted. The name of 

 Rev. F. Reiser was proposed for membership. The 

 following papers were presented ' Nesting of the 

 Western Yellowthroat ' by H. J. Leland and 'Some 

 Breeding Habits of the Least 'Tern in Los Angeles 

 Co ' by A. I. McCormick. The papers were gener- 

 ally discussed. The interesting fact brought out that 

 the Yellowthroats found breeding in the county are 

 resident throughout the year, and that toward the 

 last of April, when the resident birds have nearly 

 all laid their eggs, great numbers of migratory Yel- 

 lowthroats appear and are present a few days only 

 on their way northward. It has been noticed that 

 the resident birds are larger and with slightly diff'er- 

 ent colors than the migratory birds. Mr. Chas. A 

 Keeler of the California Academy of Sciences, who 

 was present as a visitor, gave an interesting talk in 

 which he urged that attention should be given to 

 such subjects as migration, coloration of plumage, 

 and action of climate on the size of birds. Mr 

 Keeler then presented some of his theories as to the 

 nature of colors in birds and how they are evolved, 

 the distribution of pigments and the effect of sun- 

 light on them. A number of the papers mentioned 

 will be published later. — Publication Committee. 



