Western Kingbird; Western Lark Sparrow; California Jay; Dwarf(?) Hermit 

 Thrush (migrant); Pacific Horned Owl; Dusky Poorwill; Western Meadowlark; 

 House Finch; Raven; Western Mourning Dove; Plain Titmouse; Killdeer; Tri- 

 colored Redwing; Brewer Blackbird; Bullock Oriole; Gambel Sparrow (migrant); 

 American Pipit (migrant); Lawrence Goldfinch; Cliff Swallow; Rough- winged 

 Swallow; Red-shafted Flicker; Western Bluebird; Valley Quail; Rock Wren; 

 Sparrow Hawk (American Kestrel); Bicolored Redwing; Black Phoebe; Greater 

 Yellowlegs (migrant); Sierra Junco (migrant); Golden Pileolated Warbler; 

 Ash-throated Flycatcher; Audubon Warbler (migrant); Song Sparrow (sub-sp?). 



It will be seen from these lists how small a place migrant species occupy 

 in our early or middle spring horizons. This is perfectly characteristic of western 

 California, save for the last week in April and the first week in May, when passing 

 birds are considerably in evidence. 



To complete the faunal picture of this section, I append a horizon obtained 

 on the 12th of April in almost pure sage. The "almost" allows room for some 

 precipitous cliffs and a steep-walled barranca; but the cover for a mile around is 

 sage {Artemisia tridentata), unmingled with aught save the flowering plants 

 peculiar to that association. Every item save Gambel Sparrow {Zonotrichia nut- 

 talli intermedia) represents a local breeding species : 



Valley Quail; Western Mourning Dove; Turkey Vulture; Western Red- 

 tail; Prairie Falcon; Sparrow Hawk; Pacific Horned Owl; Say's Phoebe; Cliff 

 Swallow; Violet-green Swallow; Bewick Wren {San Joaquin)-, Rock Wren; West- 

 ern Gnat catcher, Bush- tit; Lawrence Goldfinch; House Finch; Black-chinned 

 Sparrow; Gambel Sparrow; California Brown Towhee; Raven. 



The two chief objects of interest in the cattle country are Ravens {Corvus 

 corax sinuatus) and Prairie Falcons {Fatco mexicanus) . Quantitatively considered, 

 our luck with either species was very meager, since we took only two sets of each. 

 This paucity was due partly to the tardiness of the season and partly to the en- 

 croachment of civilization. Nevertheless, each of the four takes is separately 

 and qualitatively enshrined in memory. A Raven's nest, spotted on the evening 

 of April 9th, aroused the fondest hopes, which were not disappointed. The male 

 had been noticed on guard, so at a favorable turn in the canyon I loosed a sudden 

 clamor of ax on steel riata-pin, to flush the female. It took the lady fully thirty 

 seconds to emerge from a half-hidden cleft some sixty feet up and forty feet over 

 the cliff. Upon roping over, I discovered the probable cause of delay, There 

 had been only one egg in the nest, and this the wily bird had pitched over the side, 

 where it had lodged high up in the skirting. This could not have been an acci- 

 dent due to haste, for a raven's nest is very deep. It was a deliberate ruse, a bait, 

 intended either to placate our cupidity, or at least to develop the nature of our 

 interest. Whatever the game was I defeated it by restoring the egg to the nest. 



Upon our retreat the bird could hardly await our departure, but rushed 

 over to see how the ruse had worked. She alighted on the edge of the nest, took 

 one comprehensive, and doubtless bewildered, glance, and fled again. That her 

 misgivings were allayed, we know; because on the sixth day thereafter we removed 

 a set of six eggs from this nest — thus adding, no doubt, one more convolution 

 to the cerebral hemispheres of Corpus corax. 



It was the "white" falcons who more nearly outwitted us this year, for 

 we had invaded their sanctuary for the second time and were on the retreat, 

 thoroughly baffled, when a vagrant impulse seized me to fire a pistol back, and 

 some two hundred yards away, at a last year's raven's nest set high against a 

 rock wall. The celerity with which a male Prairie Falcon abandoned five per- 

 fectly good eggs of the rare "white" type, was a balm to wounded spirits. 



In another canyon a male Prairie Falcon keel-hauled a passing eagle, and 

 I marked his approximate range of interest upon his return in lordly mood. 

 There were many possibilities, but I tried first a likely looking old Raven's nest 

 a hundred yards away. The effect was electrical. Out shot a female Prairie 

 Falcon as though touched by a bullet; and when she had caught her breath she 

 filled the air with fierce aspersions, perhaps pardonable under the circumstances. 



47 



