july, 1913 WITH THE BAND-TAILED PIGEOI?I 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 aux." This was the only one of the species observed that year. At daybreak of Jun.e 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 riehl, 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 USSELL CONWELL'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 oi 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 we 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 number not only feeds your amour 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.
