THE OOLOGIST. 



Brandt's Cormorant. 



On June 1, 1902, Mr. J. B. Lewis 

 and myself made a trip to the coast 

 after eggs of birds of that locality 

 and more particularly after eggs of 

 Brandts and Farrallone Cormorants. 

 Mr. Lewis came up from home (Pet- 

 aluma) in the morning and after din- 

 ner we started out for the coast, or 

 to be more particular, Bodega Bay, 

 which is 24 miles west and south of 

 Santa Rosa. My time was limited to 

 the next Wednesday evening. We 

 went prepared to camp out. After 

 4 hours drive up hill and down hill 

 over a very rough road we arrived 

 at the Bay about 5 o'clock and pro- 

 ceeded to pitch our tent and make our- 

 selves comfortable. We were camped 

 at the head of the bay, or at the north 

 end, and the tide came up to within 

 25 or 30 feet of our tent. We expect- 

 ed to go out early Monday to an isl- 

 and off the mouth of the bay about 

 three-fourths of a mile from the main 

 land, for the Brandts Cormorant, and 

 I had previously made arrangements 

 with Mr. Blue, on whose place we were 

 camped, eo engage a boatman, but af- 

 ter we had arrived at the bay, we 

 learned that the boatman had left 

 Sunday p. m. with a load of fish for 

 Santa Rosa and we had passed him on 

 the road. So it was all off going out 

 to the island the next morning. He 

 was to be at home Monday p. m. 

 so we arranged to put in the time 

 hunting for sets of the land birds, 

 and during the day found many sets 

 of Song Sparrow, Gold-finches, House- 

 finches set. I noticed that there were 

 a great many unfinished nests and 

 we found all of 20 to 30 nests of dif- 

 ferent kinds with 1, 2 and 3 eggs in, 

 which we did not disturb, seeing that 

 they were not full sets. 



We had taken our lunch with us 

 when we left camp and it was about 

 4:30 when we arrived at our camp. 



As we drove in from the main road 

 towards our camp there was a party 

 drove up just behind us and stopped 

 to camp near us. That night we made 

 a camp fire and some half dozen of 

 the inhabitants of Bodega gathered 

 around with us. The two gentlemen 

 of the party that had just made camp 

 joined us . We learned their names 

 to be Graham, from Racaville on a 

 camping trip, also soon found out that 

 the son was an egg collector. From 

 one of the party we learned that our 

 boatman had not arrived yet. 



So we began to discuss means as 

 to how we were to get out to the isl- 

 and the next day. One of the resi- 

 dents of the bay, a Poatman, also of- 

 fered to take us out to the island for 

 $2.50, which offer we readily accept- 

 ed, and arranged to start at 7 o'clock. 

 Mr. Graham, Jr. was invited to go 

 with us. About nine o'clock the com- 

 pany broke up and we crawled into 

 our tent to sleep. On awakening the 

 next morning we found that the wind 

 was blowing so hard that we knew 

 that we could not make the trip that 

 day. The bay is 3 miles long and 2 

 miles wide and in most places 3 to 

 5 feet deep at low tide, with a very 

 crooked, narrow, and deep channel, 

 through which the current runs like 

 a mill race when the tide is either 

 coming in or going out. It is a very 

 dangerous trip to make out to the 

 island in a small boat and even the 

 natives never attempt it only under 

 very favorable circumstances. It is 

 safe enough with a large boat, but the 

 trouble is you can't land only with a 

 small boat, on the island. After giv- 

 ing up the trip to the island for that 

 day also, there was nothing for us to 

 to do but to hunt for more of the land 

 birds. 



We found more sets of Song Spar- 

 row, Goldfinches, etc., and in a low 

 place where the tide came in be- 

 tween two small hills, it was over- 



