RIDGWAY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 79 



of interest to give my observations as well as those of more com- 

 petent observers. 



April 20th, 1S62, Dr. Cooper discovered a nest of this bird near 

 San Diego. It was in a rotten stump, and was only about four feet 

 from the ground. He captured the female bird on the nest, which 

 contained five eggs of a pure, pearly whiteness. 



Mr. Xantus describes a nest which he found in a hole in the 

 body of a giant cactus (Cereus giganteus), about fifteen feet from 

 the ground. The excavation made by the bird was about a foot 

 and a half deep and six inches wide. The nest contained two 

 eggs. Mr. Ridgway did not make any observations on the breed- 

 ing habits. 



Although I have been as far south as San Diego, Cal., and as 

 far north as the Russian River, Sonoma county, stopping at inter- 

 mediate points, I have observed this bird at but one locality. This 

 assertion, however, may not cut any figure, for my stops were neces- 

 sarily short in some places. The region I refer to lies at the upper 

 end of the San Bernardino Valley, and back from the coast about 

 fifty miles. It is near a ranche known as " Crafton Retreat." The 

 topography consists of mountain, hill and plain. The plain is 

 strewn with medium sized boulders, with here and there patches 

 of greasewood thickets, and an occasional clump of junipers. Back 

 of the house are higher mesa lands ascending to respectable sized 

 hills; these are treeless excepting in the canons, where a few syca- 

 mores, cottonwoods, and oaks are to be found. Near by the house, 

 not fifteen rods away, runs a brook locally known as the Sankey, 

 which is fed by the springs and snows of the San Bernardino Moun- 

 tains. Mount Grayback stands in the distance, between fifteen and 

 twenty miles away, though apparently but one-third that distance 

 At the time I was there snow yet lingered on its summit. Ten 

 miles farther away Mount San Bernardino rears his hoary head- 

 The intervening space, or more properly speaking, the middle dis- 

 tance, is occupied by mountains and foot-hills, while the brook wends 

 its way towards us, skirted on either side by cottonwoods, sycamores 

 and alders, some of which are of considerable size. The immedi- 

 ate foreground, in the neighborhood of the ranche, is occupied bv 

 orange, fig, lemon, peach, apricot, and other cultivated trees. I re- 

 mained two weeks in this lovely spot, spending much of my time 

 among the birds. 



I had been out on the boulder plain several hours, on the morn- 

 ing of April 23rd, 1883, collecting birds; and spying a clump of 



