FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



tively estimated on that basis. A busy spectacle 

 they offered to any one standing on the railway, 

 their prevailing white color and their intense 

 activity rendering them conspicuous, in spite of 

 their small size, even to passengers in the trains. 



Willets are moderately common with us in 

 spring and fall, and should have been mentioned 

 earlier, in connection with the curlews and god- 

 wits. They are among the best esteemed of our 

 seashore visitors, but I have learned nothing of 

 consequence about their feeding-habits. 



And the same must be said concerning the 

 most unexpected, and by far the most exciting, 

 of all our Santa Barbara waders. 



In company with three enthusiastic and widely 

 experienced collectors I had gone to a stretch of 

 unfrequented beach west of the city, and there 

 at the last moment, on a few small tide-washed 

 rocks, which had shown us nothing an hour before, 

 I discovered what — looking at them as they stood 

 directly between me and the sun, with no color 

 discernible — I carelessly took for five turnstones. 



The collectors, whose guest I was, were beck- 

 oned to (as courtesy demanded), and within five 

 minutes three of the birds were turned into speci- 

 mens, and proved to be surf-birds ! None of my 

 companions had ever seen one before (a live one, 

 I mean) ; and, as may be imagined, even by a man 

 42 



