July, 1913 WITH THE BAND-TAILED PIGEON IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY 
153 
purchasing them for pets, but was disappointed to find that the smaller one had 
been killed by being dropped out of the boy’s hands while he was handling it. 
I was unable to purchase the other, but left with the boy’s promise to turn it loose 
when it could care for itself. 
In the Palomar Mountains a very young female Pigeon was collected on 
June 25, 1911. It was perched on an under branch of a large oak tree, and shot 
from horse-back with a “32 aiix.” This was the only one of the species observed 
that year. 
At daybreak of June 9, 1912, while homeward bound from the Palomar 
Mountains, two Pigeons were heard fly from the top of a fir tree, where they 
apparently had been roosting. On reaching the valley below, many Pigeons were 
seen rapidly descending from the mountain to an over-ripened uncut wheat field, 
dropping down with swift flight, on semi-curved wings, and with an occasional 
flap at long intervals. One bird was also noticed eating berries from an elder 
bush, among a small flock of Phainopeplas. 
THE ALL-DAY TEST AT SANTA BARBARA 
By W. LEON DAWSON 
R ussell CONVVELL’S long-famous lecture, “Acres of Diamonds," 
flashes a thousand scintillating lights upon the homely truth that oppor- 
tunity lies close at hand. Twice has the writer listened to this brilliant 
discourse, yet apparently without having greatly profited thereby ; for has he 
not allowed eight preceding seasons to pass by in the West without having put 
his ornithological resources to the “All-Day" test? That is, in the spring time. 
We have conducted several very gratifying winter tests, because we knew we had 
the Easterner on the hip there. But to venture an all-day in the spring, when 
the hedgerows of Nebraska, the groves of Ohio, and the very wayside weeds of 
New England are alive with birds, surely that were to invite disaster and to 
make one’s beloved West ridiculous in the eyes of men. We have been so often 
told by the confident Easterner, "But you have no birds. I do not see them. 
They do not wake me up at three o’clock in the morning as they do in dear old 
Indiana,’’ that v/e have assumed an apologetic air and tried to explain, rather 
lamely, that owing to the uniformity of weather conditions here our birds do not 
move in waves as they do in the East. And so we have long forborne to make 
the acid test of counting on a May day. 
But having exhausted the bliss of ignorance, and having wearied of polite 
pity, the writer determined to know the worst. Besides, bird-horizoning is such 
exhilarating sport that no one who has really tasted the flavor of it can ever 
quite forget. It is more exciting than golf or polo or bridge (I suppose), because 
Nature plays the other hand ; and Nature both shuffles and deals and her hands 
are never twice alike. One Hundred is the proper bid, and if you win less than 
that Nature has dealt you a poor hand. All that you get above that numlDer not 
only feeds your avioiir propre, but justifies your local pride. And you win any- 
how — health, happiness, and a very considerable increase in your knowledge of 
the birds. Of course it is an honor game. If you cheated, you would only cheat 
yourself. To fake records or to put down occurrences that you are not quite 
sure about brings its own punishment ; namely, to become that kind of a man. 
