84 THE CONDOR Vol. IX 



clined to think that their depredations are not as extensive as those of others 

 of the jay family. 



As soon as the young birds are able to travel there seems to be a sort of ver- 

 tical migration, during which large numbers of the birds ascend a few thousand 

 feet into the heavier timbered country, evidently in search of insect food, although 

 I have not examined stomachs to verify this .statement. This vertical movement 

 does not affect the entire number of the species for, as I have stated, during 

 August and September the birds are much in evidence thruout their range. 



With the first frosts they congregate in small scattered flocks and perform 

 whatever migration may be credited to them, which I am inclined to think amounts 

 to ver3' little, usually before the first big storm; but climatic conditions seem to have 

 very little effect upon them, food supply alone being responsible for their migratory 

 movements. 



When the winter coat of white has entirely covered their food on the bleak 

 hillsides, the}^ return to their winter haunts nearer the inhabited sections where the 

 waste from barn-^^ard and granary affords an abundant food supply until spring 

 comes again. 



Denver, Colorado. 



THE BREEDING BIRDS OF ESCONDIDO 

 By C. S. SHARP 



THE territory covered in the following list lies in the west-central part of San 

 Diego County and about thirty to thirty-five miles north of San Diego. It 

 comprises the valleys of Escondido and San Pasqual and part of the Ber- 

 nardo Rancho. Escondido, by which name both the town and valley are now 

 called, was originally an old Spanish grant, Rancho Rincon del Diablo, which 

 comprised some 13,000 acres of hill and valley land. San Pasqual and Bernardo 

 adjoin the grant on the east and south and both are crossed, San Pasqual for its 

 whole length, by the Bernardo River, which takes its beginning in the mountains 

 to the east in the Santa Ysabel and Pamo creeks. As the Bernardo River it flows in 

 a general westerly course and finalh^ reaches the coast as the San Dieguito River at 

 the biglaguna of that name lying north of Del Mar. 



Where it leaves what we call Crescent Valley (below Bernardo and south- 

 west of Escondido) and takes its way between the hills to, the laguna and the sea, 

 some twelve miles away, the elevation above sea level is 225 feet (U. S. Geological 

 Survey). At the upper end of San Pasqual the elevation is 350 feet, distance 

 about ten miles, Bernardo Ijang between. At Escondido the elevations run from 

 700 to 800 or 900 feet, with many hills scattered over the valley, and principally on 

 its outskirts, running up a few hundred feet more; distance inland about 

 fifteen miles. 



The greater part of all this is under cultivation; only the higher hills retain 

 their covering of brush, and live oaks that once w^ere plentifully scattered over the 

 valley are only found now on some of the higher northern exposures and in 

 the ravines. 



Much of the' land is given up to farming and there are hundreds of acres of 

 orchards and vineyards. San Pasqual and Bernardo are wholly dairy and farm- 

 ing countries with few orchards, many alfalfa fields, and several fine eucalyptus 

 groves. All along the Bernardo river for nearly its entire course to Crescent Valley 



