(= 
, zs 3 
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230 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI 
quite freely. Before sunset the Holbell call drew my eye to a reunited fam- 
ily, the mother with all three young. Between dives there once seemed to be a 
second adult, as if the father had joined the family again. The suggestion 
was so pleasant that I found myself making excuses for his absence. Perhaps 
to make the group less conspicuous he kept away in the day time, but before 
night, came to help guard the little ones during the hours of darkness. 
A sudden splash! Probably the Black-crowned Night Heron on the post 
just beyond had caught a minnow. As | glanced around the curving tule bor- 
der of the harbor, warm in the glowing light, another Heron’s form was dimiy 
outlined—a hunter in his blind. In the smooth mirror of the lake, the cumulus 
cloud above the harvest field was growing salmon. The sound of a binder came 
on the wind. Swallows twittered, flying swiftly overhead, and small squads 
of Ducks swung in. Two Pintails lit outside the circle of waterfowl and sitting 
high, with long necks raised, looked nervously on, not having learned the secu- 
rity of the quiet refuge; but from within the circle, the homelike quack of Mal- 
lards came from a band swimming around self-absorbed and unafraid. Flocks 
of Ducks, Gulls, and Crows, crossing overhead to their nightly roosts made no 
ripple in the life of the little harbor, in which was heard the soft tu-weep of 
the Spotted Sandpiper, well suited to the stillness of the peaceful, sunny bay. 
As I carefully withdrew leaving the birds undisturbed in their safe haven 
for the night, I passed up the road by the lake now bordered with golden 
wild flowers. Looking west I could see not only the connecting Coulee, but the 
white line of the large Sweetwater beyond the Bridge. From the east a flock 
of Black Terns came speeding in. From the sunset a golden portico was re- 
flected in the lake, its illumination spreading to a wide golden band reaching 
across the water. Into the east came a soft pink afterglow, and well up in the 
sky rode the harvest moon, while the weary harvesters, their day over at last, 
were wending their way slowly home. 
(To be continued) 
NOTES ON THE ELEGANT TERN AS A BIRD OF CALIFORNIA — 
By JOSEPH GRINNELL 
(Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California) 
HE Elegant Tern (Sterna elegans) is one of the several species of sea birds 
which nest altogether to the south of the United States and yet which ap- 
pear at certain times of the year well north of our southern borders. It 
is listed as a bird of California upon rather meager basis, and some of the gen- 
eral statements made during recent years in regard to the manner of its occur- 
rence, by the present writer among several, are likely to have left the hearer or 
reader with incorrect impressions. The purpose of the present article is to as- 
semble all that has been published to date with regard to the Elegant Tern as 
occurring in California, to scrutinize this information closely, and to put on 
record an increment which has resulted from field work of the California Mu- 
- seum of Vertebrate Zoology. | 
