July, L909 ONLY I?NOWN BREEDING GROUND O1' CREC[SCUS 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 6f 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, CoN?)oR. 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 J9ieg?o, C?h??brnia. NEST OF THE CALIFORNIA BI~COLORED BLACKBIRD By JOSEPH MAILLIARD WITH ONF, PHOTO BY THE AUTHOR RESENTED herewith is a photograph of a nest of the California Bi-colored Blackbird (A?e/at'us ?ubernator caltybrnicus 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 ne?t 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 opiniou 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.
