Vol. XXI 



iqo4 



J Ray, Fortnight on the Farallones. 441 



This nest held seven eggs in which incubation had made a sUght 

 start. It was made of excelsior packing and lined with thread- 

 like grass and mule hair with small bits of cotton about the brim, 

 and had the usual accumulation of stones and shells leading to it. 

 Mr, Love found a nest the same day under a stone wall near 

 Stone House, with a like complement. Most of the birds, how- 

 ever, had young in or out of the nest, and Ernest Wenthars, a 

 promising young bird student, says they start nest-building early 

 in March, for he has noticed eggs in the latter part, and must 

 raise two if not three broods in a season. As many of the nests, 

 however, are robbed by urchins the breeding season is unnaturally 

 extended, for the birds will not lay in a fresh nest which has been 

 disturbed nor re-lay in one from which the eggs have been taken, 

 but will rebuild in a new situation. On the loth of June I found 

 two of these late nests in the course of construction. We also 

 found the percentage of infertile eggs to be heavy, for in every 

 nest with young we noted one or two addled eggs. The wrens 

 were very tame and when we were tunneling the home of some 

 auklet they would be at our elbow peering among the upturned 

 rocks for some tasty morsel, and one morning one of these birds 

 entered our kitchen ; we caught it, and after we had photographed 

 it we set it at liberty. (Plate XXVIII, Fig. i.) 



Perhaps of all its nesting localities the favorite was under the 

 rock foundation of the railway which flourishes under the pre- 

 sumptions title of the ' Farallon Midland.' In fact, in their 

 enthusiastic endeavor to unearth Salpinctian dwellings, some 

 recent ornithological visitors threatened to seriously undermine 

 the roadbed until stopped by head-keeper Cane. 



By far the most elaborate nest I found was in the rear of 

 Stone House ; it ran in the earth among the rocks of a rock fence. 

 A shelf-like stone at the entrance formed a sort of veranda, and 

 this the birds had literally covered, as well as the main corridor 

 leading to the nest. I noticed the pavement was equally deep 

 under the nest, and that all the tiny nooks and crevices on the 

 way were filled. I carefully counted all the stones and other 

 material in this earthern burrow between the bare granite boul- 

 ders, and as it was situated two feet up in the wall the birds had 

 undoubtedly brought all of them. The strange assortment of 



