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 10 VoL. X! SOME RARE BIRDS AND SETS OF EGGS FROM THE CAPE REGION OF LOWER CALIFORNIA By JOHN E. THAYER R. Wilmot W. Brown has been collecting for me in the vicinity of La Paz, Lower California, for nearly a year. Among the rare sets of eggs he has sent me I think one of the most interesting is a set of Mangrove Warblers (Dendroica bryanli caslaeicels). Unfortunately he was unable to collect but one set, containing three eggs. He found two other nests, one with eggs so far advanced that he could only save one, and the other containing young. The nest with three eggs I have in my collection, also the other two nests. These nests, especially on the outside, look much more like Vireos' than they do like Yellow Warblers' (Dedroica testira). The nest with eggs is made (and the others resemble it very much) of light green fern down, cobwebs and light~col- ored dried grasses, with a few white feathers plastered on the outside. It is beau- tifully lined with feathers. It is not so perfectly shaped or so well made as the Yellow Warbler's nest. It would seem that three eggs are the complete set. Mr. Brown found this nest at Pichalinque Bay, near La Paz, Lower California, June 2, 1908, in a mangrove tree, ten feet from the ground. Incubation was advanced. The eggs measure .68X.53, .67X.52, .68X.53, and look very much like the Yellow Warbler's, but are not marked So heavily. The second set he found at San Jose, near La Paz. The nest was on the edge of a very muddy lagoon in a mangrove tree, about five feet from the ground. In- cubation was very far advanced, so only one egg out of the three could be saved. On June 16, at San Jose, Mr. Brown found another nest which contained three young; by June 25 they had left the nest except one, which was dead. This nest was placed on a mangrove bush on an island in a lagoon. Mr. Brown collected a very large series of these birds as he knew their song and could imitate it; otherwise, he said it would have been a most difficult task as they are very shy. Mr. Frazar, in Mr. Brewster's interesting book on "The Birds of the Cape Region of Lower California'", says he took only eight in all and did not shoot more than a pair in any one day. He notes the bird as "rare". That was in 1887; since that time they must have increased. Mr. Brown says, "I found the'Mangrove Warbler a rare bird, but my previous experience with this species in Panama, the Pearl Islands, and in Yucatan is what made me successful. I learned its song and alarm note in 1893. The first morning I went into the mangrove swamps of La Paz I whistled the song of the Yucatan species and the birds answered me; this is the secret of my success, for the species is very secretive in its habits. I found it so difficult to get that I offered fifty cents apiece to the duck hunters and others, including the local taxidermist, but they all failed to get it! By covering eight miles of territory I generally managed to get four or five. Sometimes when I shot one it would fall in the mangroves, with a tide running fast. Under such conditions it generally took a long time to find it, and a great deal of cutting with the machete." Brown found one nest of the St. Lucas Swallow (Tacyciela talassia bracyllera) at Pichalinque, near La Paz. It was situated in a depression on the face of a cliff among the rocks. It contained two eggs. The nest was made of dried grasses and lined with hair. The eggs are pure white and measure .65X.51 and .66X.50. ' Altho he collected a large series of the Frazar Green Heron (]ulorides rites-