July, 1909 ONLY KNOWN BREEDING GROUND OF CRECISCU3 COTURNICULUS 
127 
inches of the ground. I am informed of one nest being placed at a hight of 
eighteen inches. 
An accurate estimate of the number of birds in this colony is of course impossi- 
ble; but judging from the number of floaters and old nests, I should say that in 
1908, thirty pairs of birds resided there at that time. I am at present unable to 
describe any of the notes of the California Black Rail. All the birds observed were 
flying, and of course voiceless, like other members of the rail family, while on the 
wing. The stomach contents of the birds shot were indeterminable by me and I lack 
knowledge of their food habits. 
To Mr. Park Harris, a former resident of San Diego, is due the credit of dis- 
covering the first eggs of the California Black Rail. Mr. Frank Stephens killed a 
California Black Rail on May 28, 1908, and recorded the fact in March-April, 1909, 
Condor. This is the earliest known summer record. All previous records are of 
birds taken out of breeding season. Most of these birds have been recorded from points 
five hundred miles north of National City. 
Thru the courtesy of the State Board of Fish Commissioners, I was granted per- 
mission to take six specimens of the California Black Rail and also two nests and 
sets of eggs. , ^ 
San Diego , California . 
NEST OF THE CALIFORNIA BI-COLORED BLACKBIRD 
By JOSEPH MAI 1. 1. IARD 
WITH ONE PHOTO BY THE AUTHOR 
P RESENTED herewith is a photograph of a nest of the California Bi-colored 
Blackbird {Age la i us gubernator calif ornicus Nelson) taken at San Ger- 
onimo, Marin County, California, May 25, 1908. A few of these birds 
breed here every year in some meadows that are somewhat swampy in the spring 
and early summer. This particular nest was situated on the bank of a very small 
streamlet which meandered slowly thru the meadow,- and was built in a bunch of 
sedge a few inches above the water. It was probably a second laying at such a 
late date as above. Whether some of these birds are late breeders and others early, 
or whether some of them raise a second brood in the season is problematical, and I 
have no opinion on the subject. The fact is that it is no unusual thing to see 
young birds flying about and yet find nests with fresh eggs in the same meadow in 
the last week of May. 
Speaking of this species reminds me how difficult it is at times to maintain 
what seems to be the proper point of view pertaining to many matters. For 
instance I personally endeavored to assist in the recent — and successful — effort to 
prevent the state legislature from passing a bill removing the protection of the law 
from the meadowlark, and possibly other birds, on the plea that these birds were 
very destructive to certain crops. My point of view was that the meadowlark was 
a bird whose usefulness was great in comparison to the amount of damage of which 
he is known to be sometimes guilty, and that, with the blackbird mentioned above, 
he is the farmer’s friend. 
Now it happened just as our fight in the legislature was over that I had some 
fifty acres of oats planted in some moist bottom-land on our ranch in Stanislaus 
County, California. The oats came along beautifully — and so did the blackbirds. 
