The California Black Rail 



feet. On occasions still rarer the birds have made sustained nights, as 

 though to quit the locality outright; but almost as usually they have 

 changed their minds midair, and come straggling back to disappear some- 

 where near the home premises. 



Sad evidence the searchers have found of the heavy odds against which 

 this tiny rail does seasonal battle. An "unusually" high tide, which by 

 the way usually occurs in the springtime, will sweep the colony clean, and 

 leave the eggs to settle as random flotsam. As a consequence, waif eggs, 

 or "floaters," are a commonplace of oological experience. The unusually 

 durable quality of these eggs has been observed, insomuch that many of 

 these floating treasures are known to have been the product of the pre- 

 vious season. The effect upon the unformed, or unguarded, conscience, 

 of this tempting array of potential building material for "composite" sets, 

 had best be left to the imagination. With definite exception of these gen- 

 tlemen whose names have been cited, it is still, unfortunately, true that 

 composite sets from this classical locality have been widely circulated. 



Perhaps a word of caution upon this point may not be amiss, for 

 there have been unwitting offenders. The conclusions of science, any 

 science, must be based upon an array of exactly known facts. The validity 

 of a conclusion must depend upon the integrity of the evidence. In a 

 science, such as that of comparative oology, where the integrity of the 

 facts must depend chiefly upon human testimony, honesty is everything. 

 Without it investigation is at a standstill. Science suffers and the com- 

 munity is cheated of its rights. You can deceive a scientist by a false 

 statement of facts, just as you can deceive the fire department as to the 

 existence of a fire; but when you do, and whether you are caught at it or 

 not, it is the community — your neighbors and friends — which has to foot 

 the bill. Now the placing together of eggs which do not belong together, 

 and calling them a "set," may not be as harmful in its immediate effects 

 as a false alarm for the fire department, but it is just as truly cheating. 

 For our understanding of life processes it is just as necessary to know the 

 parentage of an egg as it is in human society to know the authenticity 

 of an heir presumptive. 



We have spoken of the nesting of the California Black Rail in the 

 past tense and with a certain detachedness — the classical colony near 

 San Diego was wiped out of existence by the flood of 1916, and no candi- 

 date has yet arisen to take its place. 



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