A LAND OF DROUGHT AND DESERT 



471 



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LOOKING ACROSS THK ROOFS OF FA RAZ, 



STAIRWAY LEADING 



thrasher was abundant in the yucca for- 

 est near Santo Domingo Landing, and in 

 early morning and evening charmed us 

 by its exquisitely musical notes. 



On San Martin Island, near San Quin- 

 tin, in July, we found many cormorants 

 breeding, with some families of young 

 in the nests. While we wandered over 

 the island we were accompanied by a 

 low-flying escort of western gulls. 



Whenever a cormorant, alarmed by 

 our approach, flew away, the gulls 

 swooped down on the exposed eggs and 

 ate them at once ; or, if we were too 

 near, each gull transfixed an egg on its 

 beak and flew away, draining the con- 

 tents as it went. On two occasions I 

 saw gulls alight on nests and calmly pick 

 up young cormorants weighing 5 or 6 

 ounces each and swallow them entire, the 



WITH A NATIVE SERVANT AT THE TOP OF 

 TO THE LOWER FLOOR 



helpless victims being swallowed head 

 foremost, their feet waving despairingly 

 from the gull's widely spread beaks as 

 they disappeared. 



THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR 



While at La Grulla meadow, in the 

 San Pedro Martir Mountains, we were 

 fortunate enough to secure our first Cali- 

 fornia condor, a huge bird, sometimes 

 measuring nearly 11 feet across its out- 

 spread wings. We afterwards saw others 

 and had a most enjoyable experience 

 watching a dozen or more of them in 

 superb flight as they swept back and 

 forth over the pine forest or soared up 

 and disappeared in the blue sky. When 

 these birds were perching on a dead tree 

 the turkey buzzards near them looked 

 like pygmies. 



