Mar., 1909 
NEST OF THE DUSKY POORWILL 
47 
saw a Dusky Poor-Will fly up just in front of him and about where one had flushed 
on the evening previously mentioned. The foreman called out, “Did you see that 
funny-looking bird?” and a second after as he took another step he exclaimed, 
“Hello! Here’s some white eggs! ” Not having had such good fortune in all 
these many years as to find a nest of these birds it was an interesting moment, and 
a great fear possessed me that the eggs might be those of some belated pair of 
Mourning Doves, and that the Poor-Will having been in close vicinity to them was 
a mere coincidence. A look at the eggs, however, was very reassuring, but to be 
absolutely positive it was necessary to hide and await the parent’s return. This 
was not a very tedious wait in this case as the female soon appeared and settled 
most satisfactorily upon her eggs. Having a camera with me I carefully studied 
how to get her on a plate, but this seemed a hopeless task. She would let me 
approach to about twelve feet, but that was all. On account of the low rocks near 
her nest there was only one side from which an exposure could be made. 
The weather was foggy, to say nothing of a strong wind, and as no shadows 
were cast the negative was bound to be flat, with rocks and ground of about the 
same light values. Despairing of getting anything better under the circumstances 
I took the best exposure I could make and then “collected” the set. Upon de- 
veloping these negatives they were found to be extremely flat, as was expected, so, 
two or three days later — the first day, in fact, that leisure permitted — I rode up on 
the ridge with the blown eggs, carefully packed you may be sure, prints of the 
best negatives, and my camera, to try to improve on the first lot. 
Replacing the eggs exactly as they were originally I tried for some time to get 
something more satisfactory. It was again foggy and windy — the fog condensing 
on the lens of the comera when focusing — and but little could be done in the way 
of improving over the first attempts. In reality the rock behind the eggs stands 
up some three feet, the eggs being at the base of it, with two good-sized stones 
lying in front of them; but the prints all give an impression of an almost flat sur- 
face, gently sloping backwards. In the afternoon the sun would have been in the 
camera’s eye, if the fog cleared away, and the wind very strong, so the morning 
was the only chance for an exposure. Even at six feet, supposing the bird would 
have allowed so close an approach, it is extremely problematical if she would have 
been discernable in a negative, as she was just about the color of the charred leaves 
and small stones surrounding her. 
The cut shows a few straws of dry grass a little distance away from the eggs. 
This is the only semblance of a nest there was. The eggs were placed upon the 
bare fragments of rock and these straws seemed rather to have been pushed out of 
the way than brought together for any purpose. The incubation of this set was 
about one-third along. Query: was this a second set, the first having been de- 
stroyed ? Or is this the customary date of breeding of this bird in the locality? 
San Gerommo, California. 
NOTES ON THE CAEIFORNIA BRACK RAID 
By FRANK STEPHENS 
M ANY years ago Mr. H. W. Henshaw told me that he had been informed 
that California Black Rails ( Creciscus coturni cuius ) were sometimes com- 
mon in the salt marshes around San Diego Bay. In our conversation Mr. 
Henshaw seemed to be under the impression that these Rails were but migrants at 
San Diego and that they were most likely to be found very late in the autumn. 
