JAN., I9O?. I THE CONDOR of one another, a flour sack proves very useful. Placing the heaviest and most compact in the bottom after wrapping, and the lighter ones on top, they ar- rived on board in fine shape. The canteen is necessary on all the islands, only two or three having fresh water. While the temperature is not nearly so hot as on the mainland, one often gets warmed up, especially if carrying tortoise. We struck a side- hillon Abingdon x,4oo feet up, that re- minded me of the Coast Range in Cali- fornia. It was covered with heavy ferns and a cold fog was blowing from the ocean so strongly that we were glad to get down 500 feet to a valley where the sun was shining, birds singing and 8-inch centipedes crawling. One good thing about collecting in the Galapagos is the absence of ven- omous snakes, the one or two species found being rare and inoffensive so far as we could see. Some of the smaller islands will equal the famous Farallones for sea bird collecting I think, particu- larly Hood Island where albatross, fri- gate birds, gulls, terns, tropic birds boobies and shearwaters all nest within less than a quarter of a mile of one other. A Day on the West Fork of the Sna Gabriel. URING my trip to the West Fork of the San Gabriel, in early June of x9oo, I was fortunate enough to see my first California pygmy owl. I began looking around for a cavity, when seeing a woodpecker's nest, which did not have the appearance of being excavated this season, I had al- most reached the tree and was about to rap, when something blocked the en- trance. I then rapped on the tree and the bird left the nest flying to an oak on the side of the canyon. As soon as I saw it fly I was positive it was a bird I had not seen before. As it left the nest it made a peculiar noise and its flight was jerky. I then sat down about zoo feet from the nest and waited for an oppor- tunity to get a better view of the bird. After waiting fully twenty minutes, the bird flew from the oak to a sycamore near the one containing the nest. On approaching the tree I could see the bird looking down at me, and was soon in position to get a fairly good view of it. Not wishing to shoot it before find- ing out what the nest contained, I took a description of the bird, which I thought was a California pygmy owl, but was not positive on account of its long tail. So after completing my notes, I ascended to the nest which was about twenty feet from the ground and began cutting inlo the tree on the opposite side to the entrance, as it placed one in a better position to work. I was considerably over an hour in making a hole, when I heard the squeal of young, but kept on chopping until having made the hole large enough tbr my hand, I pulled out four young, one at the time; which I thifik must have been about two weeks old. I was very much disappointed in not finding at least an addled egg. H. J. Los Ang?eles, Cal.
