THE MUSEUM. 



23 



ed close against the main trunk. Eive 

 Oaks, luicalypti and Sycamores are 

 also favorite trees while one now and 

 then finds a nest placed in the fork of 

 some tall Cactus or California Holly 

 bush. The nest is well made, the 

 best of any of the genus. It is usual- 

 ly woven from the fine inner bark of 

 some deatl willow tree and lined with 

 "down" from the same tree. 



I took several sets of this Finch 

 during the present season. Of these 

 fully se\cnty-five per cent, were of 

 four eggs and the remainder of three 

 and five. According to my notebook 

 the first set consisting of four fresh 

 eggs was taken March 27th and the 

 last, one of three eggs, incubation ad- 

 vanced, June loth. The greater part 

 of the nests found in April however 

 were incomplete, and those found in 

 June contained young almost ready to 

 tly. The eggs are rather pale green- 

 ish-blue in color and average -SS.x. 79 

 inches. 



Their food is of course much the 

 same as that of the other Fringillida ; 

 weed seeds, small grain, and such 

 fruit as they may be able to obtain 

 from the numerous foot-hill orchards. 



Whether they are strictly vegetarian 

 or not I cannot say positively but 

 think they are. The song of this bird 

 is very much the same as that of C. 

 califoriticiii only much longer, but I 

 think they are by nature a more quiet 

 bird than either of the other two. 

 They do not seem to seek such hidden 

 nesting places as does the California 

 t'lnch, and so are less often seen in 

 the higher mountains during the breed- 

 ing season than in the warm interior 

 valleys and canyons. 



Of the one remaining species little 

 good can be said. It is the greatest 

 pest except perhaps the Gopher with 

 which the Southern California or- 

 chardist has to contend. Many and 

 various are the methods devised for 

 ridding orchards and gardens of these 

 "Linnets." Few, it must be said, 

 result in anything more than failure: 

 but one, invented I believe by Mr. 



Mills of the Pomona I-^xperiment Sta- 

 tion, has so far proved very success- 

 ful. He sinks pans of poisoned water 

 Hush with the surface of the ground 

 and throws enough dirt into these to 

 darken the reflection of the tin so that 

 they resemble muddy pools put there 

 for the especial benefit of the birds. 

 They drink readily from these and 

 thus many are killed every day. 



The birds are so well known as to 

 hardly bear re-descripion. Their 

 breeding range, dates and number of 

 eggs are almost the same as those of 

 C. cassini; while their food is anything 

 eatable but preferably fruit and the 

 green leaf-buds of the apricot and 

 peach. They place' their nests any- 

 where; trees, vines, outbuildings, old 

 cans, and in fact any nook or cranny 

 of sufficient size is made use of by 

 these familiar little birds. The eggs 

 are seldoin more than five and in nine 

 cases out of ten are of that number; 

 even the second laying is seldom less 

 than four. If robbed once and the 

 nest left undisturbed they will lay a 

 second and sometimes a third clutch. 



The opinions put forward above are 

 of course only the result of individual 

 observation without any comparison 

 with any other collector's notes, and I 

 should be verj- glad to hear from other 

 Western collectors on any of these 

 three, for it is only by such interchange 

 of observations that we learn thor- 

 oughly our lesson from Nature's ever- 

 open story book. 



Harra H. Dunn, 

 Fulerton, Orange Co., Cal. 



Nebraska /Vcademy of Sciences. 



The ninth annual meeting of the 

 Nebraska Academy of Sciences was 

 held at Lincoln, November 25th and 

 26th in Science Hall of the University 

 of Nebraska. 



After a brief business session in the 

 forenoon of the 25th the program wSs 

 commenced in the afternoon by the 

 address of President Henry A. Wftrd 

 upon "The Fresh Water Biological 



