, 7 
B 
8 THE CONDOR Vol. XXII 
ing mortars, pestles, dishes and utensils of various sorts were unearthed and 
sent to Washington to enrich the National Museum and other museums 
throughout the world. ; 
July 13, the work at Santa Barbara being finished, the party marched to 
Old Fort Tejon, via the Casitas pass to the Ojai and Santa Clara Valley, through 
San Francisquito Pass to La Liebre ranch and past Castae Lake to the Tejon. 
Here a month was spent in collecting in the general vicinity. Near the old 
fort were taken the first specimens of the Pallid Wren-tit. Subsequently spe- 
cimens were secured in Walker’s Basin, which was designated by Ridgway as 
the type locality of the form. September 4, our party merged into a larger 
one, and we set out for the Mount Whitney region where we stayed till into 
October, when we proceeded to Walker’s Basin and spent about a fortnight, and 
then repaired to Caliente and disbanded for the season. During this trip, 700 
bird skins were collected, included in 127 species. 
One of the notable California birds I particularly desired to see was the 
California Condor, the largest of its kind, and one of the largest birds in the 
world, which at that time was supposed to be approaching extinction. No 
man’s hand was raised against it, but hundreds fell victims of the poisoned 
meat which the sheep herders put out for the purpose of killing the bears, cou- 
gars, and coyotes which preyed upon the sheep. 
Though I kept a sharp look-out for the bird, it was not until several years 
later (1884) that I enjoyed the sight of a live vulture. While at the San Anto- 
nio Mission, in what is now Monterey County, September 27, engaged on Indian 
work, I saw four individuals circling about high in air and a notable sight they 
were. Finding that they were still not uncommon in the region I hired a hun- 
ter to obtain specimens, and in a few days was gratified by the possession of 
three. Two of them I weighed and measured. One weighed twenty pounds, 
and had a spread of wing of eight feet, nine inches; the other weighed twenty- 
three pounds with a spread of nine feet one inch. Females are no doubt still 
larger. It is a pleasure to record that at this time of writing the condor is still 
extant in several of its native haunts, though apparently not so numerous as 
when I obtained my specimens. 
FIELD SEASON OF 1876 
The field season of 1876 was unusually short owing to the late date of our 
appropriation and it was not until the last of August that I began work at 
Carson, Nevada. After collecting in that neighborhood for about a fortnight I 
left for the Lake Tahoe region September 15, where I remained until November 
20, going from there to Washington. 
MEET H. G. PARKER 
It was in Carson that I first met H. G. Parker, one of the early day gold 
hunters of California, a resident of the place who laid me under many obliga- 
tions for aid in my work, not only during that season, but several subsequent 
seasons. Though not a scientific man, he was an ardent sportsman and an en- 
thusiastic collector of birds (for others), and he spared neither labor nor ex- 
pense in aiding the ornithological collector who chanced to visit his neighbor- 
hood. He held Robert Ridgway in high esteem and had been of service to that 
young ornithologist in 1867-9 during his connection with the Survey of the For- 
tieth Parallel under Clarence King. The shortest and surest road to ‘‘Hubb 
