THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



109 



NESTING HOME OF CALIFORNIA CONDOR. 



holes. I was clearly about a month or six 

 weeks too late, and resolved to try again 

 the next season, when I hoped to be in 

 time. 



My next visit was made on the 29th of 

 May, 1893. ^^^ same sights and scenes 

 greeted my approach as upon the last oc- 

 casion. I made the same hurried prepara- 

 tions for an exploring trip among the tules, 

 and had not proceeded more than twenty 

 steps when I was overjoyed to discover a 

 nest containing four beautiful dark-blue 

 eggs, and fiesh at that. I secured these 

 and pushed on. Soon another nest con- 

 taining three eggs was discovered, then 

 another, and another was found, until my 

 basket would hold no more and my last set 

 registered "14 — 4." 



Returning to the shore I repacked the 

 eggs in a feed box (brought along for my 

 horse), after which a second trip was made 

 to the feathered rookery. This was equally 

 as successful as the first. I then made a 

 third and last trip, and had secured about 

 200 eggs, comprising about 60 sets. Yet I 

 had gone over an extremely small portion 

 of the densely populated tules, every por- 

 tion of which fairly swarmed with the 

 birds, nearly all of them possessors of nests 

 and eggs. I would not dare to guess the 



number of nests those tules must have con- 

 tained as a whole. Of course I saw num- 

 bers of new nests, and still- others contain- 

 ing one or two eggs, which I left unmo- 

 lested. An occasional set of three eggs 

 was taken only when found directly in my 

 path. A. M. Shields. 



Los Anzeles, Cal. 



AFTER CONDOR'S EGGS. 



The illustration shown above is from a 

 sketch taken in the rough mountains, which 

 is the remaining breeding home, so far aS 

 known to the writer, of the California Con- 

 dor, or Vulture, now nearing extinction. 

 The adventurers pictured in the sketch, 

 which was made on the spot, are the editor 

 of the NiDiOLOGiST, holding a telescope, 

 and his artist, Mr. P. W. Nahl, with a coil 

 of rope. The trip after the eggs of this 

 the largest bird of flight in the world, 

 proved unsuccessful, but another expedi- 

 tion to the same locality will shortly be 

 made by the Nidiologist's editor. If the 

 eggs are secured they will doubtless prove 

 "good traders I" 



Should the trip prove fruitful of success, 

 a full account of it, illustrated from photo- 

 graphs, may be expected in this magazine. 



