22 THE CONDOR Vol. IX 



had time to investigate a new canyon. The first tree I found containing a nest 

 was a large live-oak. A stick thrown into the branches flushed a bird, but it was 

 not a red-tail. Yes, another horned owl! The twenty-second of March was pretty 

 late, but the temptation was too great; so up I went fifty-five feet into the very top 

 of the live-oak to be greeted by a rather surprised look from a big bunch of white 

 down. There was an egg also, but it was addled. This I took, for it was the only 

 addled egg of this species I ever found. 



One would think that I had all the horned owds in San Diego County cor- 

 ralled by this time. But San Diego County is a large one and but sparingly settled. 

 The more you travel about the more you find. The twenty-ninth of March found 

 me after red-bellied hawk's eggs in the historic San lyuis Rey river bottom. I had 

 taken a nice set of three and was about to start for home when a strange nest caught 

 my eye some distance up the river. A stick thrown at the structure flushed a 

 horned owl; but it was late in the day, as well as in season, so I left her without 

 further molestation. 



Numerous pairs of owds are not the only things we are thankful for in my 

 locality, for the collector admires the size of the trees. Southern California does 

 not boast of such giant sycamores as those of Illinois in Patrick Henry's time; for 

 my highest record is but sixty-three feet, while fifty feet is a good average. 



Escondido^ Califorfiia. 



BIRDS OBSERVED FROM MARYSVIDEE TO GRASS VAEEEY 

 BY LOUIS BOIvANDER 



LAST year I had the fortune to attend a surveying party in California from 

 Marysville, Yuba County, to Grass Valley, Nevada County, some twenty- 

 six miles. We also went from Dime Kiln, a place on the line between the 

 last two named places, to Auburn, Placer County. 



The first Sunda}- I crossed the bridge to the south, leading from Marysville into 

 the bottomlands of the Yuba river. What was once orchards and fields is now a 

 waste of bottomlands covered with brush, swamps and trees. This waste was 

 caused by the sediment from hydraulic mines and dredgers up near Hammon City 

 gradually filling the river bed. Marysville, described in older geographies as a city 

 on bluffs at the junction of the Feather and Yuba Rivers, is now. surrounded by 

 levees. At this date (May 6, 1906) Marysville was three feet below the bed of the 

 river and in danger of flooding. Even as one enters the bottomlands rows of fruit 

 trees can be seen apparently growing out of the sand and here and there is a house 

 top sticking up, mute evidence of the power of nature over man. 



I no sooner entered this barren district than I saw a nest up in an alder tree 

 about six feet from the ground. Upon climbing up I flushed the mother bird, 

 a close sitter, and found one fresh egg of the western chipping sparrow {SpizcUa 

 socialis arizomc). The nest was made of light-colored straws loosely put together, 

 lined with a few black horsehairs, and easily seen from the ground. All the time 

 I kept near the nest the mother kept up a chirping, at the same time flying around 

 in the bushes close to the ground. The male did not come near at all. 



About a hundred yards further in the brush I came across a small patch of 



