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174 THE CONDOR VoL. XI beds of tules and cat-tails fnrnish it abundant cover, so that its being seen on any given visit was largely a matter of accident.--BRADI?ORD TORRE, Santa Barbara, California. Notes from Placer County.--I note a qnery you make in the last CONDOg regarding the nesting of the Western Martin (PrOthe subis hesperia). The only places I have met them in this county--nesting--were at the pottery in Lincoln and at the Court House at Auburn. There appear to be but a few pairs at each place. I was told that from three to eight pairs nested at Lincoln for about twenty years, but succeeding years do not see them increasing in nnmbers, altho the nests were not disturbed. Mr. Ray's "correspondence" (CoNDOg XI, page 141) is all right, but does not affect ns here; but we have the dove. Hunters have been slaughtering the doves for two weeks and still I know of several nests today (August 1) on my place which contain young birds. A large number of doves here lay their first set of eggs on the ground in grain fields, and many are destroyed by cats and more by the mowing machine. Freqnently the dove will remain on the nest nntil the knives kill her. The dove seems to hold its own in numbers, but it seems a pity to begin killing so early---at least. Each year the various gun clubs make a bigger spread over their first dove shoot.--ERNEST ADAMS, Clipper Gap, California. The Ruddy Turnstone at Santa Barbara.---On the 26th of Jnly, 190% while watching the motions of a Black Turnstone on the beach at Santa Barbara, I suddenly found my glass rest- ir?g on two Ruddy Turnstones (.4tenaria interpres morinella) the first that I had ever seen on the. Pacific Coast. They were turning over pieces of seaweed, in company with their black relative, --seeming to have no color prejudice,--and allowed me every opportunity to admire their patch- work costume and the bright deep orange-red color of their legs. And by the bye, I could wish that there were a law requiring all makers of ornithological mannais and hand-books to include this point--the color of legs and feet in live specimens?in their technical discription of at least all water birds. It is too often omitted--for lack of knowledge presumably. But it should be the duty of such authorities to have knowledge.--BgADl?ORD TORRI?, Santa tearbara, California. Notes on the Nesting of the Bank Swallow.--In answer to the query of onr Editor in the last issue of the CONDOR as to nesting data on the Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia), I submit the following notes from personal observation. A small colony was nesting in the bluffs near the long wharf, Port Los Angeles, during May and June, 1907. Three pairs were nesting in a bank near a drain ditch about one-fourth mile from Hansen's old slaughter house, Los Angeles, in May, 1907. A large colony was nesting on Dead Man's Island, and in the banks near the lumber yards at San Pedro in April, May, and June, 1908 and 1909. A colony was nesting along the coast near Huntington Beach; observed June 13, 1908, and May 28, 1909.--D. I. SIEIEPARDSON, Los .4ngeles, California. The Sage Thrasher at San Diego.---On the 3d of February, 1908, I was surprised to find a Sage Thrasher (Oroscopies toouranus) in the most frequented corner of the large city park at San Diego. It remained there till Febmary 16, and I know not how much longer, as that was my l?st day in the city. I lookt for it daily, and only five times failed to find it,--and then only for lack of patience, I have no doubt. My only previous acquaintance with the species was on the desert at Tncson, Arizona, where it was wintering in good numbers.--BRaDFORD TOgRIfF, Santa Barbara, California. Sparrow Hawk Nesting in a Bird Box.--It is a common experience of the western ornith- ologist to find birds of desert or otherwise treeless regions, resorting to all sorts of expediences for nesting sites. The resourceful Flicker is responsible for some unnsual records and we expect something of him in this line. I was, however, surprised this summer by a Sparrow Hawk (Falco sparverius) who occupied, with his family, a pigeon box on the west end of a cow barn in a very populous barn yard in Modesto, California. Another box, but a few feet away, housed a family of pigeons at the same time. Hudson, in his "Naturalist in La Plata," discusses the ability that non-predatory birds dis- play in discriminating betweeu Falconidae dangerous to themselves and those that are either unable or indisposed to do them harm. We have here, possibly, a case of discrimination on the part of the pigeon and of resourcefulness on .the part of the Sparrow Hawk. -- LoYE HoLMeS MILLI?R, LOS Angeles, California.