lO 
THE CONDOR 
1 Vol. IV 
a few bicolored blackbirds, and fed in flocks. Occasionally they rested from their 
labors in Sheperdia bushes and conversed in wheezy tones, suggesting rusty 
weather-vanes. Killdeer were abundant and always screamed at the wrong 
moment. Here I made an unsuccessful attempt upon the life of what I took to be 
a duck hawk, seated on a faded piece of driftwood, making eyes at a squadron of 
grebes that were drawing too near. I secured a Sabine gull from one of the little 
fresh-water ponds where it seemed bus}'^ eating something. Doubtless a boat and 
plenty of ammunition would have brought to light several other gulls, besides 
terns and numerous ducks. 
Our grove of buffalo-berry trees was the rendezvous of a small flock of valley 
quail, besides Wright flycatchers, linnets, white-crowned sparrows, mountain 
song-sparrows, Audubon warblers and mountain chickadees. 
One of my favorite trips was to start about daybreak and walk cautiously along 
the beach. Grebes and ducks could be seen feeding in numbers, teal, shovellers 
and redheads mingling together on the water, but when started the green-wings 
would separate from the rest and return, if no further disturbance was offered. 
Avocets were frequently seen wading for Branchipus, and of course the omnipre- 
sent northern phalarope; which in earl}^ morning frequently associated with the 
least sandpipers. Occasionally a young black-crowned night heron was aroused 
from a puddle edge and took refuge among the sage-brush. I am unable to say 
just what these birds found palatable, for the stomach of one I shot was perfectly 
empty. I was surprised on one of the.se trips to come across a small company of 
bobolinks which were seated on the tops of sage-brush bushes. They seemed 
curiously out of place in this region among sage thrashers and Brewer sparrows. 
So continuing along the beach I could see numberless birds at their early morn- 
ing tasks, and hear their comfortable peeps and quacks from far across the glassy 
water, varied now and then by a distant splash-splash of some startled duck. 
Soon, however the early sun would creep over the hills and flood the chilly shore 
with cheer and warmth. Birds began in real earnest the serious task of preening. 
It was always about this time too that I .sought the thin blue column of Goldman’s 
welcome campfire and his more welcome flapjacks. So long as memory is green 
may I never forget them, in their warm pan, on a a bed of glowing coals! 
The following is a list of birds collected 
September 2 and 21 , 1901. Identifications 
jEchmophorus occidentalis 
Colymbus auritus 
Larus californicus 
Xema sabinei 
Anas boschas 
Nettion carolinensis 
Spatula clypeata 
Aythya americana 
[Ardea egretta: identified from 
plumes] 
Nycticorax nycticcrax naevius 
Phalaropus lobatus 
Tringa minutilla 
iEgialitis vocifera 
Recurvirostra americana 
Oreortyx pictus plumiferus 
Lophortyx californicus vallicolus 
or observed at Mono Lake between 
which are doubtful have been queried. 
[Centrocercus urophasianus: re- 
ported] 
Zenaidura macroura 
Circus hudsonius 
Accipiter velox 
Buteo borealis calurus 
Buteo swainsoni (?) 
Falco peregrinus anatum (?) 
Falco mexicanus 
Falco sparverius deserticolus 
Asio accipitrinus 
Ceryle alcyon 
Dryobates villosus hyloscopus 
Colap tes cafer collaris 
Phalffinoptilus nuttalli 
Chordeiles virginianus henryi 
Tyrannus verticalis 
