216 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XV 
of sick birds, which were carefully examined. Later, experimental work was 
carried on at Tulare Lake, the results of which will be described toward the close 
of this paper. 
The State Fish and Game Commission, besides directly financing this inves- 
tigation, gave every possible assistance toward the furtherance of the work. 
Deputy Fish and Game Commissioners Tipton Mathews and F. W. Smalley, 
lioth under orders, were in the field continuously for over three weeks, gathering 
material and transporting the necessary equipment from place to place. The 
machine of Mr. IN'lathews greatly facilitated the undertaking. Tlie preliminary 
examination of ducks and other birds was made in the laboratory of Dr. Frank 
Griffiths of Hanford, who kindly furnished headquarters for this work. Pro- 
fessor J. G. Davidson, of the Flan ford Lhiion Fligh School, deserves mention 
for the valuable analyses which he made of water, gases, and blood. 
Tulare Lake, situated in the southern portion of Kings County, on the 
western side of the southern San Joaquin Valley, is not the large body of water 
that one would expect to find from looking at the ordinary travelers' map of 
California. At present the lake is low'er than for the past seven years, 
and at the present rate of evaporation it will most probably be entirely 
dry in another year, unless the coming wdnter proves a w^et one. Prior to 1906 
Fig. 67. Ducks rising from .v i.evee in Tulare Lake, Dctober ,3, 
NOTE DEAD BIRDS IN FOREGROUND 
this lake had almost completely dried up, and nearly all of the bottom lands w’erc 
farmed. It was during this period that the lake bed w^as dyked off on the section 
lines, and this w'as the origin of the ievees of which I shall speak later on. 
These levees, in the central portions of the lake region, w'ere built only a 
few- feet high. At present they are over a large area submerged, while around 
the borders of the lake they gradually rise out of the water and thus afford rest- 
ing places for w'ater birds. As soon as dry enough these levees are used as 
roads for travel, since mo.st of them are from 20 to 40 feet wdde, and are dry 
long before the land between them. 
The wdnters of 1905-6 and 1906-7 w^ere years of heavy rain fall, and the lake, 
together wdth the adjoining sloughs, filled to a mark higher than for many years. 
The sloughs connecting this Lake wdth Piuena Vista and the San Joaquin River 
are now very low’ or dried up. Goose Lake is entirely dry, and Buena ^^ista 
Lake, situated in the southw-estern jiart of Kern County, is also very lowo As 
our investigations wmre carried on mainly at Tulare Lake, we shall confine our 
discussion principally to that region. 
Followdng the intermittent recession of the waters of Tulare Lake during 
each of the past two or tliree years, the land, as soon as dry enough to work, 
