THK CONDOR 
I voi. irr 
1 04 
thorough washing and I thought “like 
Naaman, it must dip seven times.” But 
no. It returned again and again until 
at the fifteenth it considered itself com- 
pletely cleansed. Then the long, elab- 
orate toilet had to be made. 
On slowly descending through the 
crack in our broken bowl, I discovered 
a fiock of Plumed Ouail dusting in the 
dry earth below me. One was walk- 
ing about, plume erect, keeping guard 
while the others enjoyed their bath. 
What beautiful birds, and how .seldom 
we see them so low in the mountains, 
but here at the foot of Santiago Peak 
the}' over-lap the range of the Valley 
Quail. The Canyon Wren is again 
peering among the rocks for its dinner, 
and the bushes are alive with other 
feathered forms. But it is the season 
when arbor days are past and four 
walls must be endured, that bird pans 
are placed before the window and a 
feed board spread with corn meal, 
brings all the members of the sparrow 
family. Townsends, the Gambel’s and 
Golden-crowned vSparrows. California 
and Spurred Towhees and juncos are 
all here. The first rain brought a pair 
of Varied Thrushes. Tn the midst of 
the downpour the male was seen tak- 
ing a bath in a pool near the house. 
In December come flocks of Band- 
tailed Pigeons and juncos are more 
plentiful. But this, like Tennyson’s 
song of the brook, might go on forever. 
But the winter sun will set and the 
Gambel’s and Golden-crowned Sparrows 
open their evening concert. The 
Valley Quail come whirring into the 
trees above the arbor for a safe retreat, 
and the night is ushered in by the clear 
sweet warble of the Lark Sparrow, that 
in the quiet spot seems to add a bene- 
diction to these days of bird study. 
^ 
Echoes From the Field. 
V/estern Evening Grosbeak Again. On April 29 at Angwin’s Hotel near Saint 
Helena, Cal. I saw a flock of about thirty Western Ivvening Grosbeaks 
(Coccothrai/sfes V. utontaiiKS.) They were observed the day following aLo. A 
Cassin’s Vireo had built a nest in a walnut tree in front of the hotel. On April 
20 1 found a nest of the White-tailed Kite containing four eggs, incubation ad- 
vanced. The nest was situated in a small liv'e oak tree in a marsh, fourteen feet 
up. P'. C. Clark, Napa, Cal. 
Early Nesting of the Red-bellied Hawk. On March 22, 1901 I took a set of three 
finely-marked eggs of Bnteo lineatus elegans from a nest in a blue- gum tree at 43 
feet elevation. A set of two eggs had been taken from the same nest last year on 
April 15. The nest was made of small sticks and lined with willow twigs to which 
were attached the green leaves and blossoms. The nest also contained a few 
feathers from the parent bird. 'Phis, I believe is a ver}' early nesting date for this 
species. Nel.son Carpenter, Rscondido, Cal. 
Parasites in Birds. Judging from my experience, the X'alley Partridge 
{Lophortyx californiciis vaUicoIa) is singularly free from parasites. I have taken 
the entrails from at least ten thousand of these birds which I have shot in many 
parts of California and Lower California without finding a worm of any kind in 
them. Hawks, owls and fish-eating birds are seldom free from worms. Of the 
latter the terns of the coast are more likely to be free from them than most other 
water birds, many of which are killed by worms, especially the Brown Pelican 
(A*, californkus.) When preparing specimens I have often admired the wise dis- 
crimination of Moses in specifying the things that are clean and those that are un- 
clean, though 1 could not see the necessity of prohibiting the eating of that which 
