24 THE CONDOR I VoL. VI FROM FIELD AND STUDY Unusual Nesting Site of the Cactus Wren.--A ten years' experience with the cactus wren (/-/eleodytes b. brunneicapillus) has left a memory of fleeting glimpses and hard approaches that characterized the attempts to get better acquainted with this wary bird. They have a way of sliding out of the nest just before one gets a glimpse of it, then appearing momentarily as they dive out of sight behind some clump of brush or tangle of cactus. If followed persistently it be- comes a case of hide and seek in which the observer gets little satisfaction. I found a remarkable exception on June 27th this year (x9o3) when taking a camping trip into the San Gabriel can- yon. The road, which crosses the San Gabriel River wash, near Azusa, is bordered by a row of poles carrying high power wires. The two cross arms, carrying twelve wires, are about thirty feet from the ground. A cactus wren had selected the lower of the arms and built a typical nest on the north or shady side of the pole, filling the whole space between it and the large insulat- or. The beginning of such a nest on the smooth arm would be possible only in a country remark- ably free from winds, but after completion, the insulator acted as a set screw to hold it in place. The road which this line of poles borders is the main travelled road to Pomona, San Bernar- dino and Redlands, and probably used more than any other long distance road in southern Cali- fornia. In some cases, for instance, a driver on a load of hay would be brought about face to face with this shy bird. While we haulted under the wires to investigate, the female alighted on the cross arm, with food in her bill for the young, which the nest contained. Often birds are forced to adapt themselves to new conditions by the settlement of a country, which may destroy their natural nesting sites, but in this case there was no apparent reason, as the wash for miles contained hundreds of perfect nesting places, in cactus such as is usually chosen by the cactus wren. That the bird sometimes does the unusual was noted in another instance, when I found a nest located in an apricot tree. It was the corner tree of an orchard which projected into a large wash, where the cactus and brush for some distance had been cleared.--FRANK S. DAGGETT, Pasadena, Cal. Records of the Black-throated Sparrow.--So far as published records go the black- throated sparrow, ,4mphispiza bilineala deserlico/a, is only an accidental visitor to the Pacific slope of Los Angeles county. Joseph Grinnell records, in "Birds of the Pacific Slope of Los An- geles County," a specimen taken in the Arroyo Seco wash near Pasadena, Cal., April xo, ?897, and I learn today of an unrecorded sl?ecimen taken by Harry Swarth, in the spring of ?898 in the San Fernando Valley. On September t2, x9o 3, while camped by an irrigation ditch on the road between two olive orchards, near Pacoima, a station on the S. P. R. R., a mile north of the Big Tejunga Wash in the San Fernando valley. I noticed a small sparrow moving about among the weeds on the road- side. It darted into the grove as I approached, playing hide and seek behind the low spreading olive branches. It proved to be a young male of the year, with black throat patch still incom- plete.--F?tANK S. DAGGETT, Pasadena, Cal. Records from the Vicinity of Watsonville? California.--The following more or less rare birds were taken or seen in the region about Watsonville, California, during the summer and autumn of ?9o3: ?tyth?a collaris, Oct. ?9, shot; seen several times. ?ymno?t)s california?us, seen several times in mountains on north side of Paiaro Valley. E/anus/eucurus, seen, but not shot, Oct. 2 3. ,4rchibuleoferr?i?eus, observed quite often during fall. Falco analurn, Oct. 3, shot. Coccygus americanus occidentalis, observed in May and June along Pajaro River. Cotaptes auralus/uteus, shot Nov, x5. Phalc?noptzlus nutlalli ca/ifornicus, observed Oct. ?5. Ch?tura vau?:i, Aug. t4, shot. ,4eronaules melanoleucus, observed in mountains on north side of valley. Tyrannus verticalis, June t, shot. Pica nuttalli, Sept. 27, shot. Corvus americanus hesperis, Oct. 2t, shot. Spinus pious, quite abundant in September; many shot. A?elospiza lincolni, abundant in September and October; many shot. Dendroica townsendi, common in fall; many shot.
