Sept., 1903 | 
THE CONDOR 
121 
allow the usurping duck hawks ample time to pay the rent, and found things vice- 
versa once more. The prairie falcons tenanted the ledge as of old and we were 
fooled. We took one infertile egg, and the other four were pipped or seamed 
across preparatory to the shells breaking in twain. What the result will be this 
year is too early to say, but I expect the rightful owners to be in possession. It is 
apparent there is one place for a nest among numerous, to us, suitable caves and 
holes in a given locality that would be selected by any pair of birds in preference 
to all others, in which, if robbed of the first set, they will deposit the second, per- 
haps a third set that season, and rarely in a nesting place close by, but I have 
always known both species to return to the original nest at the beginning of next 
season. 
Supplement. On April 3, 1903, we visited the ledge once more having been 
delayed fully a week by rains rendering the roads unfit for travel. The nest was 
approached from the north through the brush and sage and so accurately guaged 
that we arrived in a straight line almost. When close to the precipice the crack- 
ing of a dry branch scared the prairie falcon from her nest, about six feet to one 
side of us. Launching like a dart into the air, with loud cries, she sped like a 
brown meteor into the sunshine over the crags below, until her initial velocity was 
allowed to wane, and for a second or two she hung in the landscape slightly below, 
the master touch to an unsurpassable natural panorama. The five eggs contained 
small embryos, and by comparison coincide with those of the original bird. Eggs 
from her average larger than any from other of her species that I have handled. 
Later: May 6, the second set of the season was obtained from a similar site. in 
the same ledge about twelve feet from the top. One egg was sterile, the others 
were slightly incubated. 
Bird Life on the Farallone Islands 
BY HENRY B. KAKDINf; 
Illustrated from Photographs by the Author 
T he Farallone Islands lie about twenty-four miles west of the city of San 
Francisco and are to be reached from that point by tug or sail-boat. They 
consist of two main islets about four miles apart. The north islet is inaccess- 
ible except in very calm weather and the following notes were taken on the South 
Farallones only. These South Farallones are two islets lying very close together, 
— the fact that they are two islets instead of one being due to a narrow cleft that 
can be spanned by a plank. 
On the eastern islet of the South Farallone group is located the Light House 
Station and the Weather Bureau Station. The light house proper is on the high- 
est point of the eastern end. There are no houses or buildings of any kind on the 
western islet, the only structure being the tall signal staff on the highest peak. 
The party that visited the islands during the first week in June, 1903, com- 
prised, besides the writer, Frank M. Chapman and wife, Mrs. Davenport, Louis A. 
Fuertes, Dr. T. S. Palmer, and W. Otto Emerson. Leaving San Francisco on the 
2nd of June at 10 a. m., we arrived at the island about 2:30 p. m. after a very 
rough passage. As the little steamer approached the rocks we saw the birds ris- 
