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 THE CONDOR VoL. IX make an ideal nesting place for the quail, and many a nest did we uncover. From one cock I had just pitched the third forkful of hay to the rack, when a quail flew past my head appar- ently from the wagon. Search revealed the fact that with the last fork of hay I had picked up a quail with her nest and eggs and had landed all safely on the rack. Twelve eggs were found re- posing unharmed in their nest of feathers. To my knowledge the last of the much persecuted mourning dove (Zenaidura mactours) left this locality November 4, I9O6. Sportsmen (?) demanded of the Supervisors that they open the shooting season two weeks earlier than formerly, contending that by August x, all the doves had gone to the valley. Yet on that date I knew of twenty nests, containing eggs or young, within an eighty-acre field on this place, and the birds were fairly plentiful thruout September. A stray yellow-billed magpie or California crow occasionally visits at this altitude (I75O feet), but returns immediately to his valley home.--ERNESI ADAMS, Clipper Gap, California. Band-tailed Pigeons at Santa Barbara.--On September 8, two of these handsome birds alighted on a lilac bush in our garden. They were quite tame, allowing me to approach within a few feet; thus I had an admirable chance to identify them as the above named. As they did not attempt to feed during their short stay, it is my supposition they were migrating, and had stopped over to rest. This is the first time I have seen Columba fascists in this County.-- REGINALD ROGERS, Santa tgarbara, CaliJbrnia. A Notable Sparrows Nest.--A nest of Passer domesticus, with two entrances, blew down from its unstable perch in the Virginia creeper on the side of my house, November 25. The spar- row had indnstriously gathered together a mass of dry grass as big as a hat. The nest, which was deep, was warmly lined with feathers. At one side, below, there was an opening thru the feathers evidently designed as a "look out," or ventilator. The bird might have escaped thru the hole in case of necessity, but probably used the main entrance exclusively as a point of ingress, as the feathers about the extra orifice projected blades outward, showing that the bird could not have well flown in without disarranging the downy window casement.--H. R. LOR, Alameda, California. he Alaska Water-thrush in California.--On August I6, x9o5, I obtained an example of Seiurus noveboracensis notshills which provides the second record known to me for this State. The bird was flushed from a tangle of bushes which surrounded a spriug in a ravine, a hundred yards or so back of Jim Johnston's house at Cactus Flat. This is a "pocket" at about 6000 feet elevation, on the desert slope of the San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County, Cali- fornia. The region is an arid one, and I was at the spring on purpose to scrutinize the hordes of birds which were constantly visiting it for a drink and a bath. A good part of these were transients, which reminds us again that to stand the best chance of finding northern stragglers, one must strike the fall migration early in August. The water-thrush was among a throng of warblers and small sparrows, several of the latter in streaked juvenal plumage, and I did not recognize it as anything noteworthy, until it flew np out of the shade and perched with other small birds, drying themselves in the open branch-work of a fire-killed oak. Then my attention became fixed upon it because of the peculiar recurrent dip- ping movement of its body, and its identity flashed into my mind. I promptly "auxed" the bird, and found upon skinning that it was a "bird-of-the-year," as shown by the large "windows" in the skull yet ungranulated. To be more explicit the specimen (No. 7157, Coil. J. G.) is in com- plete first-winter plumage. it is precisely like examples from northern Alaska in both coloration and measurements.--Josex GRINNELL, Pasadena, California. Another New Record for Marin County California.--For the first time in my long residence in this County it has been my fortune to see a yellow-headed blackbird in this part of the State. On October I7, I saw two males of this species (Aautocepa/us .rantocephalus) fly- ing north and close enough to be readily distinguished, being iust about out of gunshot, but near enough to be unmistakable. There is no particular reason why this species should not be found here occasionally; but no individual has been previously recorded that I know of.--JosEPH MAIL- LIARD, San Francisco, California. he ]nglish Sparrow it los Angeles County.--On dropping off the train at Newhall for the outing meeting, May 9, x9o6, the first birds observed were a colony of English Sparlows, (Passer domesticus) which had their homes about the station buildings, and in the pines and eucalyptus trees adjacent. There was the same noisy chatter heard everywhere in the East; and the black-throated males with the duller females, made identification unmistakable. Thus we see that this little pest is gradually closing in on us, Tehachapi having heretofore afforded the near- est record (see Howard, CONDOR VIII, p. 67).--J. EUGENg L.$.w, //oilywood, California.