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Bancroft UbnxT 



EDITORIAL 



IT would be Interesting to learn the source of that remarkable fiction 

 that California is deficient in bird life. It falls in the same class 

 with the utterances of the young lady from Boston who, after a parlor- 

 car tour across the Mojave Desert and up the San Joaquin Valley, 

 remarked, with nose elevated and manner final, "You Californians have 

 no trees!" 



The mild climate of the State secures to it an ample feathered popu- 

 lation, who remain throughout the year. In addition there is a contingent 

 who condescend to be our guests during the winter, spending their sum- 

 mers in various northern latitudes. There are other species that ordinarily 

 may be seen here only during the summer, seeking the tropical or sub- 

 tropical lands for the winter months. Then there is a large class of 

 migratory songsters who are with us only for a few weeks in the spring 

 and fall, during their passage north and south. Finally, our vast sea- 

 frontage carries with it a heavy population of various members of the gull 

 family, together with other water birds. Most of these, also, remain 

 the year round, being wise birds and knowing a good thing. Swans, 

 geese, and a wide variety of ducks are with us in force during the moving 

 seasons, twice a year. A day's clamber among the crags of any of our 

 coast promontories or a stroll along one of the beaches will discover the 

 cormorant, murre, petrel, sand-piper, snipe, grebe, a variety of scoters, 

 shags, and other aquatic experts, and finally that great master seabird, 

 the albatross, with his superb spread of wings. 



Passing to the antithesis of our bird life we find in the uplands and 

 the High Sierras most of the world's formidable birds of prey, including 

 the golden and the bald eagle, the condor, the vulture, falcons, ospreys, 

 kites, and lesser hawks without number, and at least ten of the various 

 owls. Then there are the grouse, partridge, and quail family heavily repre- 

 sented throughout the State, with at least seven varieties, from the smaller 

 sorts of quail to the immense pine grouse, which attains a length of almost 

 two feet. 



As to the songsters, the list is far too formidable to admit of even 

 enumeration on this page, but we may note in passing nine of the oriole, 

 lark, and blackbird family; no less than thirty-eight of the finches, exclu- 

 sive of the obstreperous and unmusical English sparrow, and including 

 many of the exquisite songsters; three of the waxwings, or cedar birds; 

 seventeen warblers and vireos; twelve of the wren family, including mock- 

 ingbirds and thrashers; ten of the chickadees and wrens; and seven of the 

 robin, thrush, and bluebird group. To these add, for the sake of beauty 

 of plumage or some attractiveness other than song, fifteen of the wood- 

 pecker tribe, three goatsuckers, ten swifts and swallows, six humming- 

 birds, fifteen of the flycatchers, and eleven of the raucous jay, magpie, 

 and crow family. Beyond these there are still many other kinds of Cali- 

 fornia birds to be named, to which only a trained ornithologist could assign 

 their proper places. 



There are enthusiastic field-farers in California who claim with con- 

 viction that the birds of the State attain more exquisite powers of song 

 than their nearest relatives east of the Rockies. This is certainly true in 

 at least one case, and very probably in several. The California meadow-lark 

 comes from a world-wide ancestry of peerless songsters, but nowhere 

 abroad does the liquid joy of this bird's carol attain quite the exquisite 

 qualities to be heard afield in California. It was a wise law, indeed, that 

 placed this orphic treasure of our pastures within the pale of protection 

 against the low-grade gunner. 



And in closing we cannot resist looking once again to the unknown 

 oracle who sees a lonesomeness in our California feathered population, and 

 bidding him go to; let him cultivate the habit of a stroll before breakfast, 

 with an eye for plumage and an ear for song, and he will realize that here 

 at least is one more world to conquer. 





