The Avifauna. 



25 



for the cause, later in the day, on nearer ap- 

 proach I found my very early risers to be 

 nothing else but the Mexican Raven Corvus 

 corax siriuatiis, and was told that the birds 

 I saw circling high up in the air, were the 

 same and not Buzzards as I at first supposed. 



I have never seen a Duzzard on the is- 

 land but found the hawks and especialythe 

 Red-tail quite plentiful, probably the 

 Ravens have no use for them and keep 

 them away. 



Leaving the island the same day I did 

 not have occasion to visit it again until 

 April 25 and then I put in a little time 

 looking about The Ravens had just begun 

 to pair off and were making it quite noisy 

 with their loud (croaking) cawing; the 

 smaller birds were also quite lively, espec- 

 ially the mocking-bird which was then in 

 full song and quite common. 



I had not up to this time, found out what 

 that strange queer gurgling noise was, but 

 one morning I saw a Raven on the hotel 

 roof apparently in the act of vomiting, how- 

 ever he was only commencing to make this 

 queer noise which he kept up for five min- 

 utes. 



The Raven and the corrmon Crow act 

 about the same in their general habits but 

 the depredation of the former on the young 

 chickens of a resident of the town is be- 

 coming a nuisance. I ask him to shoot me 

 one on the morning I was to leave which he 

 willingly did. He found the surest way to 

 shoot them was to fasten a shot-gun to the 

 fence, in such a way as to have it aimed at 

 a spot where the Ravens generally alight 

 and pull the trigger by means of a string 

 which leads into the house. 



One afternoon I took a stroll up the can- 

 on and seeing a wall of rocks at the head 

 of a small canon and a noisy pair of Ravens 

 flying about, which were continually after 

 a red-tailed hawk whenever he came near. 

 I thought there must surely be a nest near 

 by; I had not proceeded very far before 

 three nests were seen on shelves of rock; I 



hurridly went back of the rocks and climb- 

 ed down from above only to find the first 

 nest an old one and also the second but the 

 third, which was rather dangerous to 

 get at without a rope, contained three 

 fresh eggs nearly hidden in the thick lining 

 of sheep's wool: all this time the birds 

 kept well away and only cawing at inter- 

 vals, finally leaving. I could not reach 

 the nest by four feet so I procured a stick 

 forked at one end and tied a handkerchief 

 at this end in such a way as to make a cup 

 shaped scoop, with this I secured the eggs 

 one at a time. The nest was similar to 

 that of the Crow except larger, being made 

 of coarse sticks and measuring twenty-two 

 inches across, the cavity was five inches 

 deep by a foot wide, and lined wholly with 

 wool and that to spare. The eggs in color 

 and markings, are similar to those of the 

 Common American Crow, but in size are 

 much larger, measuring 1.96 x 1.20, 2.02 x 

 1.24, and 1.96 x 1.22. This being a very 

 early nesting for them I did not find an- 

 other set. 



I am told by persons familiar with the 

 islands about here, that on San Clemente 

 Island, which is twenty-six miles south 

 of this island, the Ravens are quite com- 

 mon, but breed high up on the chff"s in 

 very inaccesible places, probably on ac- 

 count of the depredations of the foxes 

 which are quite numerous on both islands. 

 I am also informed about the breeding of 

 a few pair of bald-eagles and fish-hawks on 

 these islands. I have noticed three nests 

 and several of these birds on Catalina. but 

 had no opportunity to collect their eggs. 

 Otto J. Zahn. 



Mr. Joseph Grinnell reports that the Pine 

 Siskin has not been observed about Pasadena 

 since 1892. In that year these birds were 

 quite common in the arroyos, in the willow and 

 sycamore trees, they seemed to be feeding on 

 seeds from the cathins and sycamore balls. A 

 specimen of the Pine Siskin taken in 1892 by 

 Mr. Grinnell w..s exhibited at one of the late 

 meetings of the Annex. Mr. Judson reported 

 seeing flooks of these birds in June 1894, while 

 on a trip through Bear Valley. 



