194 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIV 
muffled to the ears to keep out the biting frost of zero weather, I have heard this 
little fellow’s beautiful ringing song above the roar of the icy waters. 
Certhia familiaris montana. A few seen in the pine and spruce belt, but 
nowise common. One taken on Rook’s Creek, 7500 feet, November 3. 
Sitta carolinensis nelsoni. Seen occasionally through the Canadian and 
Hudsonian zones, but not common. 
Sitta canadensis. Common wherever spruce and pine timber is found, 
usually in company with Penthestes gambeli gambeli. 
Penthestes atricapillus septentrionalis. Common along Wood River in 
the willow and aspen thickets, but never seen in the coniferous belt. 
Penthestes gambeli gambeli. This and the next species were the most 
common birds in any part of the mountains, outnumbering all other species three 
to one. On October 31 I was on Boyle Mountain at about 8000 feet elevation, 
and I spent about an hour with a flock of this species that numbered well over 
one hundred individuals. 
Regulus satrapa olivaceus. Common everywhere in suitable forests. It 
was a pleasing sight to see these little mites searching the trunk and inner 
branches of the spruce trees that were laden to the breaking point with snow. 
They appeared all unmindful of the intense cold. 
Planesticus migratorius propinquus. A single individual seen along Spring 
Creek October 27. 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
Breeding of the Band-tailed Pigeon in Marin County, California. — While never 
resident, the Band-tailed Pigeon (Cohonba f. fasciata) was formerly intermittently abund- 
ant in portions of Marin County, California. Sometimes it appeared in flocks of a hundred 
or so in the fall or winter when food conditions seemed to attract them, and was usually 
quite numerous in the spring and summer. The birds would then be in evidence from April 
to July, and might be seen picking up stray kernels in the fields just planted with forage 
corn. Or, later, when elder berries were ripe they would come in small flocks and feed in 
the tops of the elder bushes. It seemed as if they must have bred here in those days, yet 
with all the deer hunting, range riding and deliberate searching for nests we never had 
any actual evidence of this, excepting once, when a bird was seen carrying material for a 
nest into a fir forest, though the nest was not discovered. 
This pigeon is becoming scarcer all the time, and, while an occasional small flock is 
seen in this neighborhood, it never appears in such numbers as it did thirty, or even twenty 
years ago, and hence it seems singular that the first breeding record for this locality should 
have been made only this summer, when but few are left in evidence. This record was made 
purely by accident, the bird having been flushed from its nest when the writer was survey- 
ing a line through a forest of second-growth timber on a steep hillside at Lagunitas, near 
San Geronimo, Marin County, on July 30, 1912. 
The nest, of small twigs loosely laid together and closely resembling that of a Mourning 
Dove, though naturally a little larger, was on an overhanging branch of a California lilac 
(Ccanothus thyrsiflorus) extending over a steep rocky place that was rather more open 
than the immediate neighborhood. The nest was about eight feet from the ground. The 
single egg it contained was in an advanced state of incubation, the embryo being probably 
within three days of breaking the shell. 
At times the Band-tailed Pigeon, possibly on account of unfavorable food conditions in 
its natural haunts, gathers in large flocks in certain localities, and it then falls an easy 
victim to the hunter. Possibly also there are localities where it breeds in numbers 
and may easily be shot. Be this as it may, this fine bird is certainly and surely being de- 
stroyed faster than it breeds, and it is high time that it should be given some sort of pro- 
tection, and listed with game birds.— Joseph Mailliard. 
Some 1912 Spring Notes from Southern California.- ilA'rtrrfu americana. Wood 
Ibis. On May 18 I saw a single bird of this species feeding in a small pond within a hun- 
