A First Glance at the Birds, 



crawl along with their bodies flat upon 

 the ground. 



In this same group of diving birds are 

 several species which nest along our 

 coast, upon bleak, inhospitable bluffs, 

 and upon such naked rocks as the Fa- 

 rallones. What home could be imagined 

 more dreary for a baby bird, yet here 

 where the breakers are pounding and 

 the keen winds ceaselessly blowing, in 

 some cranny of the rocks, the tufted 

 puffin lays her solitary egg and rears her 

 lonely little chick. Upon the ledges 

 overhanging the sea, the California 

 murres congregate by thousands and de- 

 posit their eggs wherever a spot suffi- 

 ciently level is found. These eggs are 

 familiar to most of you, no doubt, as 

 the Farallone eggs, formerly sold in the 

 markets of San Francisco. 



Before leaving the diving birds it may 

 be well to emphasize their division into 

 three families — the grebes, the loons, and 

 the auks, murres and puffins. Among the 

 most interesting species, not already 



13 



