I'HK OOLOGIST 



181 



state the exact date of theii- (lepature 

 but think it ss somewhere ne:ir Septi-m- 

 ber 18Ji 



This Th-.-ii^h is cue of the tiiiest song- 

 sters 'it has Hver been mv pleasure to 

 hear; his full clear note usually being 

 heard in the early morning and late in 

 the evening. 



While camping in the Santa Cruz 

 Mts. near Pescadero, Saa Mateo Coun- 

 ty, upou the banks of the Pescadero 

 Creek, at an altitude of about 1300 feet, 

 I was agreeably 

 surprised to had 

 the Russet- backs 

 are there in great 

 numbera. Until 

 then I had always 

 thought they were 

 exclusiv^'ly a bird 

 of the valleys. 



It was indeed a 

 pleasure to awake 

 in the early morn- 

 ing and bear their 

 "old familiar"song 

 mingling with the 

 sharp "pe-wit" of 

 the Flycatchers. 

 They would begin 

 singing in the 

 morning about 5 

 o'clock and con- 

 tinue until So'clock 

 after which time 

 they were silent 

 until about 5 

 o'clockinthe even- 

 ing; and from that 

 time until far into 

 the night the 

 woods would re- 

 sound with, their 

 clear and beautiful 



song. 



Wm. L Atkinson, 



Santa Clara, Calif. 



The Duck Hawk in Lower California. 



I will make no pretent-e of describing 



fuUy the UHStlng of this e'egaut falcon, 

 but the fact that rologists priz« its eggs 

 so highly and run such risks in secur- 

 ing them, has tempted me to give a f-jw 

 notes 



The islands a'ong the west coast of 

 lower California form an ideal resort 

 for the Duck Hawk. Free from the 

 predatory mammals of the mainland, 

 with abundant food in the nesting sea 

 birds and un<iisturbed except by the 

 infrequent and casual visits of man, the 

 only struggle this 

 falcon has is with 

 its own kind. So 

 on these i-lands of 

 San Geronimo, 

 San Benito, and 

 Natividad we tiad 

 the Duck Hawk 

 making its nest 

 without any view 

 to protection from 

 animals or man. 

 The collector, too, 

 must view these 

 islands with de- 

 light. Here there 

 is no need for de- 

 scending over diz- 

 zy cliff or climbing 

 tall trees forjneith- 

 er exists. There is 

 scarcely a place 

 where a nest could 

 be placed out of 

 easy reach Es- 

 pecially is this true 

 of Natividad is- 

 land where one has 

 little more to do 

 than to pickup the 

 eggs, having found 

 the nest. 

 The Duck Hawk nests on the island 

 in early spring; in 1898 we found eggs 

 on San Geronimo the middle of March 

 and on Natividad we took fresh and in- 

 cubated eggs and downy young about 

 the tenth of April. 



