The Birdfi on Buena Vhtn Lolxe. 
51 
The Birds on Buena Vista Lake, Southern 
California 
By Wm. Shore Daily. 
Our Editor has asked mo to let liim have a few notes 
on birds observed on the Pacific coast, so I am sending an 
account of a ti'ip made some few years ago around Tjake Buena 
Vista, and should it prove of interest will send some notes 
of th(^ birds I saw on the Prairies and in the mountains, for 
other issues. Lake Buena Vista is situated on the prairie some 
twenty -five miles from Bakersficld, and is fed ])y the Avaters 
of the Kern Eiver, which empty into it. In the winter and 
spring when the river is bank high, the lake has a circum- 
ference of about 40 miles, but in the summer when its 
waters are drawn off for in-igation purposes it is considerably 
smaller, but still remains a very considerable body of water, 
and a noted resort for wild fowl of all kinds. 
At the time of which I write over 100,000 ducks 
were shipped from here to the San Francisco and Los Angeles 
markets annually. My partner and self had just concluded a 
very successful hunting season, and were thinking of shortly 
crossing the mountains to the coast. Before doing so I wished 
to pay a visit to some hunting friends on the other side of 
tlie lake. Instead of crossing direct I decided to take u 
trip round the lake. Aly l>oat was 16 feet long by 20 inches 
wide, and of course flat bottomed. With this narrow 
beam it was somewhat unstable, but although I travelled 
some thousands of miles in it T was only upset twice, once 
when poling I got my pole jammed in a crevice and 
foolishly hung on to it, another time when paddling, through 
reaching out too far to pick up a dead bird. But for an 
adjacent clump of tules, into which I was able to push the 
boat and tie it up, I might easily have been drowned on this 
occasion and as it was I had to dive for my gun and 
cartridges several times before I recovered thf m. 
Having fixed up some provender for myself and a 
smaK terrier, I threw my blankets on board, and set out 
about half-an-hour before sun up, always the most interesting 
hour of the day, as the night feeding birds are returning from 
their feeding grounds, and the day feeders are busily seeking 
