116 



THE OOLOGIST 



domes in of its own accord. To tank 

 the enormous flow is out of the ques- 

 tion, so the oil is run into sumps al- 

 ready made, or held in canyons that 

 are hastily dammed to meet the emer- 

 gency. Sometimes these oil lakes 

 cover acres, as in the case of the 

 Lakeview gusher. In the dark of nighi 

 or during the beautiful desert twi- 

 light, and in the windless dawn when 

 reflections are strongest, these tar- 

 colored lakes appear as bodies of 

 water. 



Instinct does not always save the 

 birds. Men employed around the great 

 Lakeview sump tell how the migratory 

 waterfowl, flock after flock, dropped 

 out of the turquoise sky and plunged 

 into that lake of oil. Majestic peli- 

 cans, deliberate of flight; snow geese, 

 Hawkes, fast-flying canvassbacks and 

 ducks of all varieties that take the an- 

 nual trip from Alaska to the flats of 

 the lower Colorado river, alighted by 

 the thousands in that oil sump, never 

 to rise again. When these struck, 

 their feathers became saturated with 

 oil and their flying days were over. 

 Many would remain on the surface, to 

 be soon overcome by the heat and 

 fumes of rising gas. Others would 

 dive when excited or closely pressed. 

 One old watchman long in the fields 

 maintained that they committed sui- 

 cide. The sight of birds struggling in 

 the oil and countless blackened bodies 

 floating on the surface had not the 

 effect of detej-ring others from making 

 the fatal plunge." W. A. Strong. 



San Jose Mercury Hospital, 



San Jose, California. 



Some Western Birds. 

 California Bush-Tit. 

 Three species and sub-species of the 

 Genus Psaltriparus, a truly western 

 genus not ranging east of the Rio 

 Grande in southern Texas, are found 

 in California. But as all forms are 



similar in habits and differ but slightly 

 in appearance, I shall in the present 

 article deal mainly with the one mosi 

 familiar to me, passing quickly over 

 the others. 



In northern California, we have the 

 Coast Bush-Tit (Psaltriparus minimuo 

 minimus), which is the type species. 

 The bird is from four to four and one- 

 half inches in length; the plumage is 

 brown, darker on the head and gray- 

 ish down the back. The desert form 

 of southeastern California is the Lead- 

 colored Bush-Tit (Psaltriparus plum- 

 beus). As its name would imply, this 

 form is mostly bluish-gray in plum- 

 age. 



The subject of this article, the Cali 

 fornia Bush-Tit (Psaltriparus mini- 

 mus californicus), is well distributed 

 throughout the Transition and Upper 

 Sonoran Zones of the balance of the 

 State. It is of the same size as the 

 Coast Bush-Tit and differs from the 

 type species only in the general light- 

 er tone of the plumage. 



In my home county of Los Angeles, 

 Californicus is an extremely common 

 resident throughout the year. Herein 

 lies one of his main charms, for like 

 the poor he is always with us. Gath 

 ering in large flocks after the young 

 are fledged, our little friends make 

 themselves at home anywhere and 

 everywhere, ranging high up in the 

 mountains until the first flurry of win- 

 ter snow drives them down to the 

 warm valleys. Here they remain in 

 the parks and gardens until the spring 

 awakening of the mating instincL 

 breaks up the jolly litlte bands. 



While not in a position to state posi- 

 tively that they do so, I believe that 

 the birds raise two broods a season, 

 at least in the years when there is 

 no heavy rainfall after early spring. 

 At any rate eggs may be found from 

 early March until late July, thus plac- 

 ing the species among our earliest 

 breeders. 



