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FOREST AND STREAM. 
[SEPT. 7, 1907. 

touch with nature and with a greater fondness 
for flowers. He knew the names of ey ery one 
and pointed out the Indian pink, flaming paint- 
brush and a dozen others, the names of which 
I have forgotten. The hillsides were covered 
with yellow pansies. At times nothing could be 

seen but the solid yellow of these pretty little 
flowers. 
The roads were bad, but following along 
the Temecula River for a distance, we turned 
to the west to a road that was half under water 
part of the way and gradually begat 
the mountains. field pond was alive 
with ducks, plover were calling from every side, 
to climb 
Every 

and in one place we passed a flock of 
buzzards drying themselves in the sun, wings 
grea 
outstretched, perched upon the telegraph poles, 
trees and fences, utterly indifferent to us. Half 
way up the hillside we stopped and looked back 
at the beautiful valley spread out before us, 
set in by the snowy mountains in the far dis- 
tance—the furthest peak must have been fully 
seventy-five miles from us, and they were as 
plain and distinct as if they had been but ten 
miles 
away. There was Elsinore to the north 
with its far-famed duck lake, and Murrietta 
Hot Springs in sight in another direction, 
That morning ride and view repaid us over and 
Over again for the trip. 
The top was reached, and an undulating grass- 
covered plain spread out before us—a veritable 
cattle ranch, with here and there a clump of 
trees and a road winding along the brook that 
was running toward us. 
the 
A few 
and we 
further 
were over the 
divide and following one that was running in 
the same direction we were going. Then sud- 
denly through the cedar two birds darted. I 
did 
miles 
brook had ceased 
not have to be told that they were pigeons, 
but they disappeared in a twinkling. Among 
the great clumps of liveoak that had appeared 
suddenly, the Goodman ranch house 
was seen. 
It was a_ beautiful spot, only forty acres and 
owned and managed by mother, son and 
daughter. The daughter, a woman of nearly 
middle age, greeted us most cordially. A big 
Stag hound seemed anxious to greet us less 
cordially and she quickly shut him in the 
house. 
She told us there were lots of p 
igeons, but we 
would have to go down the ravine a mile or 
two before we would find them, and were 
thicker from there on until we had passed over 
the 
range and come to the edge of the opposite 
valley; that just at evening the 
shooting was 
thick and 
out a little 
killed six pigeons in 
last, and she had 
way the night before and 
$1X 
been 
shots. 
We were given carte-blanche to help ourselves 
and we found them the finest we 
had tasted yet in California. 
to oranges, 
They are grown 
without irrigation, and in the little valley where 
they grow a frost is Their 
After- 
some of 
considering they were so much better 
than any others we could get. 
seldom known. 
very limited crop brings fancy prices. 
ward we sent over from Pasadena for 
them, 
We drove on until soon our Way was stopped 
by a mass of rocks that had fallen and blocked 
the trail. Under a grove of large liveoaks the 
horses and wagon were left and We put our 
guns together, filled our pockets with shells, 
took the lunch basket and started on. Deer 
tracks were seen, and then in a soft spot down 
near the edge of the brook, evidence of where 
a mountain l'on had been drinking and further 
on bear tracks. We verily were in a hunting 
Suddenly with a and a roar a 
flock of two or three hundred pigeons left the 
thick growth in 
district. whir 
front of us. We could just 
catch a glimpse of them, but they made a tre- 
mendous racket getting away, and as we went 
on, they kept getting out of the trees on either 
side, out of gunshot. 
wild, 
They were evidently very 
I could see that a bunch of cottonwoods 
in the open glade ahead of us was full of them 
-—trees not as dense as the liveoaks—and the 
birds, pigeon-like, were perched on the high 
branches. They did the 
look like 
certainly 


SEA 
LIONS AT 
COAST OF SANTA CATALINA ISLAND, 
CALIFORNIA, 
HOME ON THE ROCKS ALONG THE 
passenger pigeon, and I did not wonder then that 
they had been often mistaken for the Eastern 
birds. 
Charl’e stopped here, as the birds were flying 
back, and concluded he would stand a good 
show of getting passing birds, and he did score 
two before “1 had’ gotten one. J went on 
further and soon had some shots, but at a long 
distance, and the gun I had (a borrowed one) 
pulled hard and once or twice snapped, so I 
did not get a bird until I had fired several 
times. How well I remembered picking up 
the first one. They are a little larger than the 
passenger pigeon, a good deal the same color; 
the mauve and violet blue of the breast almost 
blending into red and the back the same old 
gray-blue of the passenger 
pigeon; legs and 
bill a pronounced yellow, whereas the passen- 
I s 
ger pigeon had red legs and feet: a gorgeous 
shield of violet, green and white from the back 
of the head extending an inch or more down 
the neck, with the fluffy feathers of the pigeon 
family, so that when shot strike them the air is 
filled and when they strike the ground feathers 
were strewn everywhere. This brought back 
the memory of the days when I shot passenger 
pigeons 
and they struck so hard that they were 
literally 
picked by the impact. It was bad, 
too, for getting a good specimen for mounting, 
for that was what we had come for. 
I killed a bird or two and wandered down 
the creek. The gorge widened into a valley, 
the stream gained and volume, and in 
wider expanse I had a chance to see more 
of the birds, and I 
force 
this 
sat down to watch them. 
They would come whirling over the mountains. 
and after circling, pitch down into the treetops. 
The flocks ranged from half-a-dozen to two or 
three hundred, and in one of the largest flocks I 
noticed a white one which afterward, on alight- 
ing near me, I saw to be undoubtedly an albino 
band-tailed pigeon. I would have given any- 
thing to have gotten it, but though I saw it a 
dozen times, I could not get near enough to it 
to shoot it. 
A hard shower wet the grass, so that my feet 
were soaking wet, but I had two or three good 
specimens out of the seven birds I had killed, 
and concluded that was enough, JI 
found 
Charlie had saved four, out of 
which he had 
two good ones, thus giving us five for mount- 
ing. 
Quail got up with a whir as we walked along, 
and we were told this was a great place for 
quail shooting in the proper season. 
Gradually we traveled back to the horses. 
The birds were coming in from the lower valley 
thick and fast, but we had enough and there 
was no use killing more. So about 4 o'clock 
we pulled out, reached the ranch house, loaded 
the bag of had engaged in the 
morning, and about 7 o’clock we were back at 
the Hotel Temecula. We had gotten our band- 
tailed pigeons and had sa isfied ourselves as to 
their flight, flock formation and all that sort of 
thing. 
oranges we 
It’s said they frequent these mountains 

entirely, and as the season advances, leave for 
the north, following the mountains clear into 
Washington and probab y British Columbia, 
returning as the season gets colder and winter- 
ing in Southern California and Mexico. While 
the flocks are of considerable size, they do not 
fly in that mass formation or in such 
numbers 
immense 
as the passenger pigeon did in the 
days gone by. 
We were up at five Wednesday morning, 
had 
breakfast and were 
away on the train at 6 
o'clock. It was a warm, bright day and still an 
overcoat was comfortable in the early morn- 
ing. We changed cars before getting to River- 
side and came home by the way of Orange and 
were in Los Angeles before noon; deposited 
our birds at the taxidermist and later on 
ceived them in excellent condition. 
re- 

STIMULATION WITHOUT REACTION. 
After a day of enjoyable sport, it is wise to 
choose a drink which helps to restore the vital 
powers rather than one which tends to deplete 
them, as in the case with many drinks. Bor- 
den’s Malted Milk is delicious, concentrated, 
nourishing, invaluable to the Camper, made ready 
for use by adding water, hot or cold.—Ady. 
























