24 



The Avifauna. 



The Mexican Raven on Catalina 

 Island, 



N the very early part of the spring of 

 1894, I had occasion to visit Santa Cat- 

 alina Island. This island is about twenty- 

 three miles long, with a trend nearly paral- 

 lel to the coast, and is eight miles in its 

 widest part; and lies twenty-seven miles 

 south of San Pedro, the port of Los An- 

 geles. 



making a drawing card for the summer 

 sportsman. 



Few tree8,but many large bushes are found ; 

 only the Cottonwood, willow, wild-cherry 

 and perhaps an oak reach a size that war- 

 rants them being called trees, and they are 

 hidden in the narrow canyons, bushes, how- 

 ever grow almost everywhere, but most lux- 

 uriantly upon the northern exposures of the 

 steep slopes, where they often seem to be too 

 large for bushes. 



Two mountains form the island, which 

 indeed comes near being two islands but for 

 an isthmus only three-fourths of a mile 

 wide and thirty feet above sea level, which 

 joines them. The mountains reach a 

 height of between 1,000 and 2,000 feet; 

 their sides are broken by numerous canyons 

 and gulches and the summits are often 

 somewhat level or rolling. The canyons 

 sometimes widen into small level parks, 

 but ordinarily they are narrow and the 

 sides are very steep, water being found on- 

 ly in the larger ones. 



The island has for many years been in- 

 }iabited by sheep and wild goats, the latter 



On landing the first thing I noticed, 

 after viewing the little town of Avalon, the 

 queen summer resort of the coast and which 

 has many permanent residents, was the 

 flock of what I at first thought to be Buz- 

 zards circling high up back of the canyons. 



There were also a lot of Ravens around the 

 town, which at first I thought were Crows, 

 they were very tame and could be approach- 

 ed within eight or ten yards unless you had 

 a gun along, when they would keep out of 

 range. 



Very early the next morning I was a- 

 wakened by some loud cawing and a strange 

 queer gurgling noise which I was at a loss 



