Land=Birds Observed on San Clemente Island. 
San Clemente Island lies about fifty miles from the nearest main¬ 
land and twenty-five miles from Catalina Island. It is seventeen miles 
long - and four wide. Its trend is from northwest to southeast, that is, 
parallel with the mainland coast. The northeastern side of the island 
is steep, rising abruptly to the summit ridge which is about 1500 feet 
in altitude. From this ridge the land slopes gradually through a series 
of parallel benches or mesas to the southwest coast which in many 
places has a broad beach. Cutting their way westward transversely 
through these mesas from the summit ridge, are numerous ravines and 
canons. Some of the latter are very deep and narrow, resembling 
miniature Canons of the Colorado. The only water on the island in 
summer, except at the wind mill, is to be found in holes and recesses 
in the beds of the deepest gorges. The sheep and goats have worn 
paths down to the most accessible of these ’ ‘tanks” as they are called 
by the herders. Vegetation on this island is not super-abundant. It 
is mainly composed of cactus of several species and a low thorny bush 
on the mesas and hillsides; while the canons and ravines generally 
contain thickets of wild cherry bushes, which in a few places reach a 
height of fifteen feet or more, and might be called trees. Our stay on 
this island extended from May 28 until June 7, inclusive. The notes 
of an earlier visit by myself, from March 28 until April 3, are also in¬ 
cluded. During both visits camp was made at the windmill at Smug¬ 
gler’s Cove, near the southeast end of the island, and most of the notes 
pertain to the region immediately surrounding the Cove. 
1. Callipepla californica vallicola —Valley Partridge. 
I found a small number of these birds in a broad canon which 
reaches the coast a half-mile southeast of China Point. The 
canon bed was lined with an unusually heavy growth of wild 
cherry bushes which afforded the only good cover on that part of 
the island. On May 31 I saw two broods of young scarcely a 
week old. In all, only about twenty adults were noted. I was 
told by one of the sheep-herders that twelve dozen “quail” had 
