Page:Condor21(6).djvu/16

 230 THI CONDOR Vol. XXI quite freely. Before sunset the Holbcell call drew my eye to a reunited fam- ily, the mother with all three young. 'Between dives there once Seemed to be a second adult, as if the father had joined .the family again. The suggestion was so pleasant that I found myself making excuses for his absence. Perhaps to make the group less conspicuous he kept away in the day time, but before night, came to help guard the little ones during the hours of darkness. A sudden 'splash! Probably the Black-crowned Night Heron on the post just beyond had caught a minnow. As I glanced around the curving tule bor- der of the harbor, warm in the glowing light, another Herou's form was dimly outlineda hunter in his blind. In the smooth rror of the lake, the cumulus cloud above the harvest field was growing salmon. The sound of a binder came on the wind. Swallows twittered, flying swiftly overhead, anc small squads  of Ducks smg in. Two Pintails lit outside the circle of waterfowl and sitting high, with long necks raised, looked nervously on, not having learned the secu- rity of the quiet refuge; but from within the circle, the homelike quack of lards came from a band wireming around self-absorbed and unafraid. Flocks of Ducks, Galls, and Crows, erossing overhead to their nightly roosts made no ripple in the life of the little harbor, in which was heard the soft tu-weep of the Spotted Sandpiper, well suited to the stillness of the peaceful, sunny bay. As I carefully vithdrew leaving the birds undisturbed in their safe haven for the night, I passed up the road by the lake now bordered with golden wild flowers. Looking west I could see not only the eonneetin Coulee, but the white line of the large Sweetwater beyond the Bridge. From th oast a flock of Black Terns came speeding in. From the sunset a golden portico was re- flected in the lake, its illumination spreading to a wide golden band reaching across the water. Into the east came a soft pink afterglow, and well up in the sky rode the harvest moon, while the weary harvesters, their day over at last, were wending their way slowly home. (To be continued) NOTES ON THE ELEGANT TEEN AS A BIED OF CALIFOENIA By JOSEPH GRINNELL (Contribution from the Museum of rertebrate Zoology of the University of California) T lqE Elegaut Tern (Sterna elegans) is one of the several species of sea birds which nest altogether to the south of the United States and yet which ap- pear at certain times of the year well north of our southern borders. It is listed as a bird of California upon rather meager basis, and some of the gen- eral statements made during recent years in regard to the manner of its occur- rence, by the present writer among several, are likely to have left the hearer or reader with incorrect impressions. The purpose of the present article is to as- semble all that has been published to date with regard to the Elegant Tern as .occurring in California, to scrutinize this information closely, and to put on record an increment which has resulted from field work of the California lIu- scum of Vertebrate Zoology.