THE CONDOR VoL. IX birds in flight is, "What large phainopeplas!" Their coloring from a distance appears alike, and their method of slow, dignified flight is qnite similar. I speak of black and white plumage, but the black of Pica pica hudsonica is much mixed with a bronze green. As.far as I am able to judge by observation, the birds are beneficial, not only destroying injurious insects but acting as scavengers as well. Last summer the "grasshopper becmne a burden" and it was gratifying to see fifteen or twenty large families of magpies and as many Brewer blackbirds in the alfalfa fields all catching the hoppers. t3reen, La JDltlltl ?Ott?lly, Uolorado. AMONG THE GULLS ON KLAMATH LAKE BY WILLIAM L. FINLEY WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY HI?]RMAN T. BOHLMAN HE lake region of southern Oregon is perhaps the most extensive breeding ground in the West for all kinds of inland water birds. The country is overspread with great lakes, several of them from t?venty to thirty miles across; and reaching out on all sides of these are vast marsh areas and tule fields extending for miles and miles. The latter part of May, 1905, we set out to study and photograph the bird life of this region. For several days we packed thru the mountains with our heavy camera equipment, and then across a rolling, sage-brush country till we reached Lost River, which empties into Tule or Rhett Lake. Here we abandoned our horses for a stout rowboat, and then for over a month we cruised about Tule Lake, crossed over to White Lake and out into the Lower Klamath. Tule Lake is a body of water about twenty-five miles long and fifteen to twenty miles wide, cut thru the northern half by the Oregon and California boundary line. A few miles to the northwest is Lower Klamath Lake, about the same size. Be- tween these two larger lakes is a smaller body of water called White Lake, separated from the Lower Klamath by a broad strip of tule land. The border of these lakes is a veritable jungle. The tules grow in an impene- trable mass from ten to fifteen feet high, and one can never get to a point where he can look out above the tops of the reeds and see where he is going. Then the foundation below is made of decayed vegetation and is treacherous to tread upon. One may wade along in two feet of water a short distance and sink over his head at the next step. We found a few places where the solid roots had formed a sort of a floor at the surface of the water, which was buoyant enough to support us. These precarious footholds were the only camping spots we had for two weeks. In Lower Klamath Lake stretching for riffles and miles to the west is a seem- ingly endless area of floating tule "islands," between which flow a network of narrow chinreels. These so-called islands are composed of the decayed growth of generations of tules. Most of them are soft and springy, and sink under the weight of a person. Gulls love society. They always nest in colonies and live together the entire year. They are most useful birds about the water-fronts of our cities. These gulls have developed certain traits that mark them as la?d birds rather than birds of the sea. In southern California and Oregon I have watched flocks of them leave the ocean aud rivers at daybreak every morning and sail inland for miles,
