July, t9o6 [ 91 Land Birds of San Onofre, California BY JOSEPH DIXON N the extreme northwestern corner of San Diego County,California,there is an old Mexican grant which still remains undivided and unsettled. The general topography of this locality consists of low rolling hills which increase in height and ruggedness as they extend inland, until they terminate in the San Onofre Mountains which have an altitude somewhat Jess than 3ooo feet. The San Mateo and San Onofre rivers drain nearly all of this part of the County. These rivers widen out near their mouths forming lagoons and I5 or 2o acres of salt marsh. Extending inland along each of these river valleys there stretches an almost continuous grove of sycamores. The north sides of the hills are covered with live oaks and a tangled growth of poison oak and lilac brush. But near the coast the southern slopes, which lie fairly exposed to the sun, are covered with a sparse growth of "old man" and cacti. The whole country is one vast cattle range on which hunting has been, and is, prohibited, and as the conditions are unusually favorable there is an af)und- ance of bird life which offers some exceptional opportunities to the bird student. For this reason Philip Pinger and myself have made three trips to this locality. The first trip was made May 27 to 3o, I9O4; the second, March 25 to April 2, ?9o5; and the last visit extended from March 23 to April I of the present year. There had been a series of very dry seasons previous to our first visit and we found that the scant growth of grass had withered by May. The unusually abundant rains of the last two seasons have worked a wonderful change in the appearance of the country. The cactus which was formerly so conspicuous on the southern slopes is now hidden by a luxuriant growth of flowers and chilicothe vines. These seemingly innocent beds of flowers sometimes give the collector a painful surprise as he finds a large knob of cholla cactus tightly attached to his leg. These cactus patches are especially formidable to the collector as he tramps wearily campward in the darkness of evening. We made several short trips up and down the coast and twice we cut across the mesa and went up the river valleys for an all-day jaunt. But all of our obser- vations were made within a radius of six miles 0four camp near the railroad sta- tion called San Onofre. American ravens were often seen flying in pairs across the valley or up the coast. They often circled around camp to see if they could find scraps of meat ' that had been thrown out. This is the only locality in which I have found this species to be tame. It was a daily occurrence to see four or five ravens hopping around the scrap heap near the tent and once we counted six ravens feeding in the door yard within a few feet of a fisherman's tent. At another time we counted ten ravens and thirty or forty turkey vultures around the fresh carcass of a cow. This carcass was picked to the bone in three days. A male raven shot March 24, ?9o6, had a meadow mouse, one Jerusalem cricket and a centipede ?o6 millimeters long, in its stomach. We found several ravens' nests along the seacoast. These nests were situated in potholes usually near the tops of the cliffs. On March 24 we flushed a raven from a nest which was about 75 feet from the top and 6o feet from the bottom of the cliff. But we failed to secure the eggs. Among the large number of species found, none were more conspicuous by day and night than the hawks and owls.. We found the western red-tail and sparrow hawks and the Pacific horned and barn owls especially abundant. In
