May, ?9o4 I THE CONDOR 75 few others. I may refer to them in the future, though they are not very important. I did a great amount of work of which its pages bear no evidence. I spent most of the summer and autumn of I885 in studying the food habits of the birds in orchards, vineyards, grain fields, pastures, in valley and mountain. I had pre- viously been somewhat familiar with them but examination of bird stomachs gave me some surprises. I found wheat in stomachs of birds that I had not suspected of eating it, including J/ela;terpes f bairdi and Asj,ndesmus torquatus. I discov- ered that the former stores acorns and eats them without reference to any worm they may contain, thus exploding the venerable theory of its selecting acorns that would later on contain worms and that the anticipated grub was the sole desider- atum. This bird is very fond of mulberries; nevertheless it is quite harmless. I had often seen ?colecophagus cyanocephalus, Slumella ne. glecta and ?lphelocoma cali- /ornica probe the ground for the kernel of wheat at the root of the young plant, frequently destroying it, had shot them and found their stomachs full of soft wheat and nothing else except a little soil. But I had seen these and nearly all of the birds feeding principally upon locusts which were very destructive throughout a large portion of California in x885 and I knew that a just verdict could not be rendered for or against many species until an immense amount of testimony was taken in all sorts of localities at all times of the year. My first impulse was to publish notes on food of hawks, owls, and game birds, of which I had positive opin- ions. I was aware of the great usefulness of the hawks and owls which remain in California during summer--especially the red tailed hawk and burrowing owl. MIGRATION. The simple fact is that the north conting migrants arrive in California, at least, about the same time every spring, without regard to tempera- ture or state of vegetation, though the latter is about a month later some seasons than others. My observations at San Diego during the migratory periods of ?884 and ?885 led me to think differently, but long continued observations in central California have convinced me of the correcmess of the above assertion. There are no temperatures so low as to check the spring nilgrants west of the Sierra Nevada. The I,ower Sonoran life zone extends north of the 4oth parallel in the inter- ior of California. Oranges ripen earlier at lat. 39 than at Los Angeles, lat. 34 . It is said of Thoreau that upon seeing a certain flower he remarked that it xvas time for a certain bird to arrive from the south. It would be impossible to make accurate predictions of that sort in California, and quite impossible for birds to make their spring arrival accord with flowering of the plants. A few examples will demonstrate this. Mr. Proud reported almond blossoms at Chico, February ?, ?885; Mr. Palmer reported them at Berkeley, February 6, x895. Berkeley is nearly three degrees of latitude south of Chico. March ?o, ?886, vegetation was about ten days earlier at Gridley than at Stockton, Livermore, Niles and Hayward, all of which are more than three degrees south of Gridley. Here I should say that plants are not always earlier at Gridley than at Stockton. At Gridley leaves on deciduous oaks were about two inches long February 22, ?886. They were just perceptible at Stockton February 28, ?9oo. The oaks ?vere slightly tinged with green at Stockton April ?, I9O3. Some of the birds arrived at Stockton earlier the cold backward spring of ?9o3 than in the mild early one of I9OO. The martin (Progne s. hesperia) came in cool, stormy weather March 7, ?9o3, Empidona.?: trailli, Centopus richardsoul, /ctera v. longicauda, Zamelodia melanocephala and others came between April 25 and 29 against a strong cool north wind, the two last named in moderate force. Many grosbeaks were singing the 25th. During the remarkable cold winter of ?9o2-3 the lowest texnperature at:
