Vol. XXXIII , r , , , T 1 1 1 



igi 5 Notes and News. 14:1 



before a single exhibit is in place. The great trouble in the countries across 

 the Atlantic may lessen the exhibits and the number of visitors from tha\/ 

 part of the world, but this will be more than made up by the even more 

 interesting exhibits of the Oriental nations and the great number of Ameri- 

 cans who have at this late day determined to "see America first! " 



Yet it is not the exposition that will be the greatest attraction to the 

 ornithologist. There have been a number of expositions in the United 

 States, and most of you have seen more or less of them. So it is an old 

 story. But there will be opportunities to visit this State under conditions 

 never before brought about, and which will not prevail again for many 

 years to come. 



We have been called a hospitable people here in California. I do not 

 know. Perhaps we are. We were brought up in the customs of a new 

 country, where habitations were few and far between. If you reached a 

 house at meal time, or at night, you tied your horse and entered to find a 

 welcome. You were offered what there was, much or little as might be, 

 and you accepted in the spirit in which it was offered. Perhaps we have 

 not gotten over this. In 1915 we are going to be on our mettle to be hos- 

 pitable, and we are going to give a welcome to our neighbors and friends 

 that will linger in their memories as long as they may live — and may our 

 friends live long! 



No, it is not the Exposition that we wish to call especially to your atten- 

 tion, it is California. You may have seen many expositions but you have 

 not seen many Californias. Most of you have not seen ours. From the 

 summit of Tamalpais we want you to see the sun set in the great Pacific, 

 and from this point of vantage to watch the lights of San Francisco glow 

 and glimmer as the stars appear, and to see the same sun rise over the Sier- 

 ras, if you have the energy to be up so early. 



We want you to see the Farallon Islands, only a couple of hours run from 

 the Exposition grounds, with their wonderful seabird life, the thousands 

 of California Murres on their nests, the Cormorants busy in their rookeries, 

 Tufted Puffins peeping from their holes, not to mention Gulls, Cassin's 

 Auklets, Rock Wrens, etc. 



We want you to visit the Los Banos breeding grounds, so well represented 

 in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where you 

 can see many varieties of ducks, herons and shore birds building their nests 

 and raising then - young on the swamp lands and among the tules. We 

 want to show you our Humid Coast Belt, with its characteristic forms of 

 bud life, and only a few miles inland our desert and semi-desert areas where 

 water brings about a revolution, and where Nature asserts her will, insist- 

 ing upon desert forms predominating but a short distance from where are 

 to be found those darker forms which moisture with lower temperatures 

 seem to create. 



We want you to see Lake Tahoe, with its wonderful scenery, surrounded 

 by snowy peaks where breed the Gray-crowned Leucosticte and the Cali- 

 fornia Pine Grosbeak, and for those of you who like it the magnificent 



