The Avifauna. 



47 



Collecting Under Difficulties. 



On the morning of April 17th, Mr. 

 H. R. Taylor, editor of the Nidiologist, 

 and myself took the nine o'clock train bound 

 ior a small station on the South Pacific 

 Coast Railway. Arriving at the station at 

 ten o'clock we set out across meadows and 

 ploughed fields and vegetable farms, cut up 

 with drainage and irrigation ditches, to a 

 thickly wooded swamp, about two miles 

 distant, stopping now and then to examine 

 suspicious looking clumps of wild black- 

 berry vines from which we took two richly 

 marked sets of Samuel's Song Sparrow and 

 a set of the California Bush Tit. Empty 

 nests, some containing a broken 'igg, es- 

 pecially of the House Finch, indicated that 

 snakes had been dining. Hundreds of 

 Gambel's Sparrows fluttered from the wil- 

 lows and tall grasses and brambles along 

 the fences, but we failed to find any of their 

 uests. A few pairs of Mexican Horned 

 Larks were seen on patches of alkaline land 

 where they were undoubtedly nesting. After 

 crossing a few more fences we were in close 

 view of our destination. This swamp is 

 half a mile wide bj- about two miles long 

 and partly dried up in summer. It is 

 thickly timbered with oaks and tamarack 

 and gigantic sycamores, with a fair sprink- 

 ling of laurel and willows, and full of thick 

 underbrush and rank vegetation. The 

 surrounding land is all under cultivation, 

 chiefly by Chinese vegetable gardeners 

 whose redwood, shingled shanties are 

 scattered in groups of three or four. 



Upon reaching the swamp we walked for 

 half a mile along its north side until coming 

 to the road which led through to the south 

 side. Stopping at a well I brought forth 

 my tin cup and we drank freely of the pure, 

 cold water, for the day was hot. 



Our first find was a nest of straw con- 

 taining four white eggs, in a burnt-out 

 stump of a monster forest oak. These we 

 easily identified as specimens of Gallina 



Domestica and therefore decided to leave 

 them as it was rather close to a farm house. 

 Quite a number of Tree Swallows were 

 breeding in natural cavities in sycamores, 

 and, having no climbers with us, we wasted 

 no time shinning up the smooth trunks. 



Our business was to get eggs of the Great 

 Blue Heron ; we had seen some of these 

 birds perched on trees and flying about be- 

 fore we entered the swamp, so, walking 

 briskly along, we were soon on the south 

 side of the swamp and stopped onh- once 

 to examine a nest of the White-tailed Kite, 

 about forty feet up in a large oak; it proved 

 to be an old nest. A creek or ditch, four 

 feet wide and two feet deep, followed this 

 side of the swamp and the water was clear 

 as crystal and cold even on a hot afternoon. 



Crossing a narrow foot bridge we were soon 

 well into the swamp and followed a trail 

 that soon lost itself in a wilderness of net- 

 tles, vines and brambles, poison oak and 

 matted brush. The poison oak in Cali- 

 fornia is very similiar to the poison ivy of 

 the Eastern states. Here my buckskin 

 gloves came into good use to protect my 

 hands and wrists from the venemous nettles 

 and sharp thorns. The poison oak was 

 not shunned as neither of us ever "caught" 

 it. 



Soon we were under several sycamores 

 containing nests of the Great Blue Herons 

 and the birds had flown away at our ap- 

 proach and were now sailing and flapping 

 a few rods distant, and arousing others in 

 the neighboring trees by their gutteral 

 "konk, konk." Selecting the easiest tree 

 to climb, Mr. Taylor ascended and packed 

 several sets of fresh eggs into a fish basket 

 and let it down to me with a ball of twine. 

 I removed the eggs and he pulled the basket 

 up and repeated the operation. 



Several nests were empty and we con- 

 cluded that we had come about a week too 

 soon to make a good haul. These nests 

 were from fifty to seventj' feet from the 

 ground, and there was quite a stiff breeze 



