S?P'r., ?9o3 I THE CONDOR allow the usurping duck hawks ample time to pay the rent, and found things vice- versa once more. The prairie falcons tenanted the ledge as of old and we were fooled. We took one infertile egg, and the other four were pipped or seamed across preparatory to the shells breaking in twain. What the result will be this year is too early to say, but I expect the rightful owners to be in possession. It is apparent there is one place for a nest among numerous, to us, suitable caves and holes in a given locality that would be selected by any pair of birds in preference to all others, in which, if robbed of the first set, they will deposit the sec,?nd, per- haps a third set that season, and rarely in a nesting place close by, but I have always known both species to return to the original nest at the beginning of next season. SVPPL?T. On April 3, x9o3, we visited the ledge once more having been delayed fully a week by rains rendering the roads unfit for travel. The nest was approached from the north through the brush and sage and so accurately guaged that we arrived in a straight line almost. When close to the precipice the crack- ing of a dry branch scared the prairie falcon from her nest, about six feet to one side of us. Launching like a dart into the air, with loud cries, she sped like a brown meteor into the sunshine over the crags below, until her initial velocity was allowed to wane, and for a second or two she hung in the landscape slightly below, the master touch to an unsurpassable natural panorama. The five eggs contained small embryos, and by comparison coincide with those of the original bird. Eggs from her average larger than any from other of her species that I have handled. Later: May 6, the second set of the season was obtained from a similar site in the same ledge about twelve feet from the top. One egg was sterile, the others were slightly incubated. Bird Life on the Farallone Islands BY HENRY B. KAEDING Illustrated from Photographs by the Author HE Farallone Islands lie about twenty-four miles west of the city of San Francisco and are to be reached from that point by tug or sail-boat. They consist of two main islets about four ?niles apart. The north islet is inaccess- ible except in very calm weather and the following notes were taken on the South Farallones only. These South Farallones are two islets lying very close together, rathe fact that they are two islets instead of one being due to a narrow cleft that can be spanned by a plank. On the eastern islet of the South Farallone group is located the Light House Station and the Weather Bureau Station. The light house proper is on the high- est point of the eastern end. There are no houses or buildings of any kind on the western islet, the only structure being the tall signal staff on the highest peak. The party that visited the islands during the first week in June, I9O3, com- prised, besides the writer, Frank M. Chapman and wife, Mrs. Davenport, Louis A. Fuertes, Dr. T. S. Palmer, and W. Otto Emerson. Leaving San Francisco on the end of June at ?o a.m., we arrived at the island about e:3o p.m. after a very rough passage. As the little steamer approached the rocks we saw the birds ris-
