54 THE CONDOR Vol. XIX 



yond, told me of the birds. "When they first get here, if there isn't a royal 

 battle over those snags !" she exclaimed. "Fight? Yes, scream and holler and 

 fight around those trees. I used to set and watch them birds. ' ' The chip- 

 munks, she said, climbed the stubs and the Swallows drove them off. "I used 

 to like to see them fight a squirrel down," she said. "Half a dozen would dive 

 right at him and they 'd put him down in a hurry. ' ' 



Only one family of Tree Swallow? were in possession at the time of my 

 visit and their nest was about twenty feet from the ground on the east side of 

 the stub. Once when I was watching it the gardener warned me not to sit near 

 the stubs when the wind was high for, as she said, ' ' they go over sometimes ' ' ; 

 but her husband in a tone of superiority remarked that they wouldn't fall in 

 my direction as the wind was from the ocean. When after several visits the 

 birds had become somewhat used to me I put my camp stool down at the foot 

 of the stub where the bracken stood above my head, and the Swallows went 

 about their business unmindful even of the white dogs that had accompanied 

 me. The bark had fallen off the stub from the nest hole down, but still held 

 above and made a shading portico for the door. 



The Swallows in coming to the nest would sail down on set wings. If I 

 did not see them I knew they were approaching by seeing their shadows waver- 

 ing over the shiny gray trunk and the ferns beloAv, and also by the actions of 

 the young which would crane out of the doorway till the sun lit up their three 

 big chirring yellow throats. When the three nestlings' heads crowded the 

 doorway it looked as if the builder, the ' carpintero ', had not measured for such 

 a cup full. Occasionally one of the old birds would go down into the nest out 

 of sight, but generally they clung to the doorway feeding the young from out- 

 side. 



When the female was hanging there the dull sheen of green that showed 

 on her back was in striking contrast to the handsome steel green of the back of 

 the male. When one of the nestlings stood in the doorway the sun rested on its 

 sooty head and lit up its bright eyes as it pecked vaguely at the wood. It was 

 looking out into the world. Perhaps it felt the call of the open sky. In any 

 case the next time I came that way the old stub stood silent and deserted. 

 From being a center of life and interest, a home, it had become a charred dead 

 tree trunk. I turned away as from the empty house of a friend. 



{To he continued) 



A LIST OF THE BIRDS BREEDING IN SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY, 



CALIFORNIA 



By HAROLD E. HANSEN and WALTER A. SQUIRES 



WITH FOUR PHOTOS BY THE AUTHORS 



SAN FRANCISCO County has an area of forty-one square miles. In ele- 

 vation it varies from sea-level up to a little less than one thousand feet 

 above the sea. The eastern part of the county lies in the Upper Sonoran 

 life-zone and the western portion in the Transition life-zone. Alcatraz Island 

 and Yerba Buena Island lying in San Francisco Bay, and the Farallon Islands 

 some thirtv miles out to sea bevond the Golden Gate, are included in the coun- 



