82 
The Birds on Buena Vista Lake. 
standing- 20ft. or more out of the water, making- splendid 
resting places for the (hills and Cormorants. On one tall 
brancli. a large light coloured liird was perched, which on a 
nearer a])proach, proved to be an Iceland Falcon, the only 
one of its kind I have seen outside the Zoo. It sufTered 
me to approach within thirty yards before it took wing. With 
the sun shining on it, it looked quite white, and nearly twice 
the size of a Peregrine. It was now getting towards lunch 
and siesta time, so I selected a bunch of tules, where 
I could get a good view of one of the lai-ger ponds and tied 
up to the lioat. After a well-earned lunch, I followed the 
example of the rest of the animal kingdom in my neighbour- 
hood and prepared for a half hour's sleep. Whilst half -dozing 
I was amused by the antics of a little Rail, which kept on 
popping in and out of the boat. Had the dog not been there 
I have no doubt that it would have run all over mo,, as they 
are very fearless. It is considerably less in size than the 
English Water Rail, but similar in colour. .Another little 
bird to pay me a visit was a Wren, As far as I can re- 
member it was exactly like our Jenny, but I have never 
seen it in California except in the tules, where it breeds, so 
I must conclude that it is a different species to ours. In 
the middle of the pond a small flock of Red-breasted Mergan- 
sers (Mergus serrator), were now feeding.' I couldn't help 
noticing how different they were in this respect from the 
other diving ducks. The Canvas-Backs, Red-heads, etc., nearly 
always reappear within a few yards of where they have dived, 
while the Mergansers pop up sometimes fifty or sixty yards 
from where they went down. This little flock were feeding 
on young white fish. Nearer to me a pair of Gadwalls were 
looking for a building site. These and the Wigeon and Pin- 
tail are grass feeders, and spend much of their time on the 
marshes and irrigating ditches. After an hour's rest, I de- 
cided to push through to the feeding grounds, where the 
water is shallow, and I could use the pole. On the way I 
almost ran on top of a flock of Grey Geese. These are not 
nearly so common as the other three varieties mentioned, 
the flocko seldom exceeding a dozen birds. From the black 
bars across the breast, I took them to he White -fronted 
{Anser albifrons gamheli), Thousands of Coots (FuJica 
americana) — without doubt the commonest liird on the lake — 
