UPLAND GAME BIRDS 13] 
Pacific. It breeds in small numbers at several points 
in the Coast Range between Santa Cruz and San Diego, 
laying its two white eggs on the ground near the bank 
of a pond or river in some localities. In other places 
it prefers to construct a shallow platform of twigs in a 
tree or bush. Incubation lasts from fourteen to sixteen 
days. In shape the newly hatched young are like minia- 
ture geese, and their yellow skin is covered with the 
sparse, cottony, white down. ‘They are fed ona thin 
milky fluid, by regurgitation, for twenty days. The 
adult deserts its nest, eggs, or young on the slightest 
provocation ; it is exceedingly timid, so that any attempt 
to study its nesting habits, should one be so fortunate as 
to discover a nest, would prove disastrous to the brood, 
unless very cautiously done. They are said to have no 
breeding season in California, but to raise their young 
during any month except December. From April to 
September is their usual time. Deep in the recesses of 
a& canon you may come upon a company of these gre- 
garious birds in the tree-tops. Unless you see the bird, 
you will fancy you have discovered a new owl, so hoot- 
like is their “coo.” It has been described as “a short, 
hard hoot and a long coo.” In the large aviary on the 
grounds of Mrs. Sefton at San Diego, a pair of these 
pigeons taken at Bear Valley have been kept some time ; 
their note has become modified, [ presume by confine- 
ment with other birds, for it is much less expulsive and 
more purring in quality than when heard in the moun- 
tains. They breed in the aviary, laying their eggs on the 
ground behind a bush in one corner and also in com- 
