V ° 1 'l906 :ni ] Ray ' A-BwdinQ in an Aut °- 405 



long it took to build a nest. This one was finished with a thick 

 lining of horsehair at half past five in the afternoon of the follow- 

 ing day. Another nest was found only a few feet from the main 

 tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad over which the overland trains 

 were tearing by day and night, while a third was in a thicket 

 of nettles, a rather clever barricade. The bird is a late breeder, 

 as all nests examined contained either the full complement of 

 three eggs in a fresh state, or incomplete sets, while there were 

 empty nests in various stages of construction. 



My favorite grounds were in the cool shades along the St. Johns 

 River, for the thermometer has an awkward habit here of running 

 up as high as 114° F. on summer days which we found very destruc- 

 tive to ambition. One morning, by the river, I was agreeably 

 surprised to see, eyeing me over the edge of a twig structure about 

 forty feet up in an oak, a majestic female Western Red-tailed 

 Hawk. The tree was peculiarly hard to ascend, and the nest 

 was placed in the most inaccessible part. On the following day I 

 returned with my brother, who after some deliberation started up 

 the trunk. The hawk refused to stir, however, until he was 

 less than twenty feet distant. While I was meditating on the 

 probable style of the egg markings I was rudely awakened by an 

 exclamation of disgust as my brother announced that the nest 

 was empty, which was wholly unexpected considering the late 

 date. 



During our visit I located many bird homes but all belonged 

 to the more common species; half a dozen warbler abodes con- 

 taining eggs in various stages proved to be those of Dendroica 

 cestiva brewsteri. 



May 22. — To Bakersfield, 93 miles. Additional species, 2. 



The trip to-day was of little importance, ornithologically or 

 otherwise. After leaving the orange groves of Porterville, which 

 lies twenty-nine miles southeast of Visalia, the country became 

 more and more barren. At Famoso we entered a desert, sparsely 

 covered with a low growth of shrubs, which extended unbroken 

 to the mountain ranges in the hazy distance. Horned Toads and 

 Horned Larks were the only inhabitants to present themselves, 

 and after a run of twenty miles Bakersfield, like an oasis, loomed 

 up in the distance. The great Kern River, which courses through 



