96 Californian Garden Birds. [ February, 
The black-headed grosbeak (Hedymeles melanocephalus), a 
delightful summer songster often called here “bullfinch,” is in- 
clined to be very sociable, though its nests are so often robbed by 
boys for cage-birds that it builds mostly in places more retired 
than gardens. 
The redwing blackbird (Agelaius pheniceus, and var. guber- 
nator), though preferring marshes, often builds here in small trees 
on the borders of boggy streams within cultivated grounds, if un- 
molested. I saw a fine male this spring with the shoulders en- 
tirely orange, the opposite extreme from var. gubernator. Brew- 
er’s blackbird (Scolecophagus cyanocephalus) is numerous about 
houses, and builds in companies in low trees where unmolested. 
It has recently taken to roosting in winter in the evergreens of 
the “ Plaza ” in the noisiest centre of San Francisco, with English 
sparrows. The California jay ( Cyanocitta Californica), if not so 
much persecuted, would be abundant and very bold around houses 
where oak-trees grow, but the boys drive them to wilder build- 
ing-resorts. Its thievish habits and practice of destroying other 
birds’ eggs make it a bad tenant. The size of eggs I gave in the 
Ornithology of California was misprinted 1.80 by 1.04 instead of 
0.80 by 1.04; these San Diego eggs being, as usual, smaller than 
others from northward. 
Gairdner’s woodpecker (Picus pubescens var. Gairdneri) is 
a common visitor to the gardens, and, like its eastern relative, 
will doubtless burrow for nests in old fruit-trees, The allied 
Picus Nuttallii seems to avoid this region. 
The rufous humming-bird (Selasphorus rufus), though very 
familiar in other places at least as far south as latitude 35°, I 
have not seen here building near houses, though a few do build 
along creeks, preferring moist locations. On the other hand, the 
barn owl (Strix flammea var. pratincola) is very common, and, 
where protected for the purpose of destroying vermin, becomes 
familiar. One pair has a nest in a windmill, and another built 
in a hole in a steep, high bluff at the edge of a garden, where I 
got fresh eggs April 10th. The nest and eggs mentioned as from 
me in North American Birds, iii. 522, prove to belong to the 
Geococcyz. ; 
Finally, the California quail (Lophortyx Californicus), though 
coming rare so near San Francisco, is very tame about houses 
be it is protected, feeding and laying eggs near the barn- 
yards, 
