Page:Condor14(2).djvu/17

 Mar.,1912 PASSERELLA STEPHENSI IN MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 67 about the latitude of southern Monterey County. On the east side of the Sierras there were none, nor was any Passerella found /rs far as the Museum expedition went to the north of this limit. We know that megarhyncha comes in still farther north, but between Mt. Whitney and the southern half of Tulare County there seems to be a hiatus as far as Passerella is concerned. The situation now is that stephensi has been found breeding as far north as above outlined in Tulare County, possibly wintering in Santa Barbara County, and an occasional winter visitor to Marin County, very much farther north. The distance from its next most northern record to Marin County is something like 175 or 200 miles, at least, with plains, lowlands, rivers or bays to cross, and with abso- lutely no records between these extremes, making this situation an extremely inter- esting one, and proving that there is room for a lot of investigating in this line. It also apparently shows another exception to the rule that birds do not winter north of their breeding grounds. The two photographs herewith presented are to show the similarity of the ground occupied by stephensi in its breeding range in the San Jacinto Mountains and in its wintering place in Marin County. Both localities are rocky, waste areas, covered with cypress in Marin, County--which is replaced by chinquapin on the breeding ground, though a little of this is found in Marin County also, and with ceanothus and manzanita in both places. In Marin the elevation at which these birds are found is about 1500 feet while in their southern breeding grounds it varies from 7000 to 9000 feet. Singularly to state they are found in Marin County only upon the very tops of the ranges, and never even such a small matter as two or three hundred feet below the tops, although the conditions may 'seem absolutely the same. NESTING OF THE CANADA GOOSE AT LAKE TAHOE By MILTON S. RAY WITH FOUR PHOTOS BY TIlE AUTHOR ICHAEL RYAN, an old settler of Lake Valley, has assured me that he has noted geese nesting at Rowland's Marsh almost every spring since he first came, thirty years ago. Be this as it may, I failed to record the bird on trips through the marsh in 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1906; and while a large, noisy bird like the Canada Goose could hardly be overlooked. I must acknowledge not visiting some of the sections of the marsh where I have since found it rather common. My first acquaintance with the goose was made on the first of June, 1909, when I came upon a pair at the north end of the marsh. The birds were very wild and kept well out of gun range. I searched the vicinity but failed to locate any nest. Some days later I learned that the keeper of a nearby resort had a short time previously collected a nest of eggs of the goose. These he had hatched beneath a domestic hen, and the young were successfully reared. I feel quite sure it was the parents which I observed, and also feel rather certain it was the only pair in the marsh that year. On arriving at Bij0u, May 20, 1910, I was informed that geese had become more abundant than ever in the marsh, and that residents who lived close by had