38 Proceedings 
long rows on the telegraph wires, but they are restless toa 
degree. Each bird seems to think it needful to shift his 
position every few minutes, till at last the whole flock flies 
off to roost in the eucalyptus or pepper trees. 
Early in May I found a colony of these birds nesting in 
an orange grove. ‘The nests were usually ten or twelve 
feet from the ground, and most of them contained newly- 
hatched young. At the Ostrich Farm it was amusing to 
see the Brewer’s Blackbirds running over the Ostriches’ 
backs. 
The House Finch, commonly called the Linnet, is no 
friend of the farmer. His habits are very like our Spar- 
rows, but he is altogether a neater bird, with crimson 
breast, head and rump, and his song is almost the same as 
our Chaffinch’s. He often nests in the creepers on the 
side of the house or in the shrubs in the garden. 
The Mocking Bird is another dweller in the gardens. 
His tame, familiar nature soon wins your affections, whilst 
his song recalls home associations as you recognise notes 
of the Nightingale and Thrush. As you sit under the 
spreading leaves of a palm tree, you hear a rattling amongst 
the branches and you see a Mocking Bird stealthily help- 
ing himself to the young dates; or you see him in the 
graceful pepper tree picking one by one the aromatic, 
crimson berries from the little procumbent bunches. 
The spring of the year is a specially favourable time for 
seeing birds in Southern California. Migrants are arriving 
from Mexico, some to settle down arid nest, others to move 
on, after a day or two, to the far north or the high Sierras. 
Other species that pass the winter in Southern California 
leave for the mountains or the north in March or April. 
Amongst these is the Western Robin. On March 31st, 
I counted fifty-six Robins on a small lawn at Pasadena. A 
few days later they were gone. In June I found the Robins 
breeding in the a ncwate Valley, 4,o00ft. above sea level. 
In September, being in Siskiyon County in the extreme 
north of the State, I found the Robins again flocking for 
their move south; and being at Pasadena again in Decem- 
ber, I found that the Robins had arrived before me. 
