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160 TIlE CONDOR Vol. XIII Herodias egretta. Egret. One bird was seen on a pond at the extreme west end of the lake on the morning of May 29. Butorides virescens anthonyi. Anthony Green Heron. Two birds were seen flying over the marshes. Nycticorax nycticorax naevius. Black-crowned Night Heron. Breeding ill the tules in small numbers in company with the Ibis. Five nests were found oll the 28th, all of which contained youfig except one, which Cmltained three badly incubated eggs. In one case the young were nearly full grown. TheSe nests were more substantially built than those of the Ibis, and were placed lower down in the tules, being from one to three feet above the water. Railus virginianus. Virginia Rail. One bird seen on the 28th. Fulica americana. Coot. Nesting abundantly. Many young birds were noted and several nests containing fresh eggs were found. One thing that im- pressed us as being very strange was the fact that no nests of the Florida Gallinule ((;a//[nultt gttleala) were fonnd nor were the birds seen. This bird, which breeds so commonly in many parts of southern California in company with the Coot, was, if not entirely absent, at least very rare. 0xyechus vociferus. Killdeer..Common along the shores of the lake. Aluco pratincola. Barn Owl. Fairly common in the more dense of the rule thickets.. Chordeiles acutipennis texensis. Texas Nighthawk. We both agreed that we had never seen this species so abundant as it was in this vicinity. In the evening they were noted in great numbers catching insects over the surface of the lake. Cypseloides niger borealis.. Black Swift. On the evening of May 28, a little before sunset, a flock of eight or ten of these birds circled over our camp for sev- eral minutes. They were close enough to allow us. to positively establish their identity. Yellow-headed, Tricolored and San Diego Red-wing Blackbirds were nesting abundantly in the rules. Fresh eggs were found and full growll young were noted. FIELD NOTES FROM SOUTH-CENTRAL CALIFORNIA By H. S. SVARTIt WITH ONE PHOTO N PURSUANCE of the investigation into the mammal fauna of the Sall Joaquin Valley which the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California undertook during the past spring (see Grinnell, CoNr)o? XIII, 1911, p. 109), the writer of this spent in the field the time from May 5 to Jnne 6. Though mam- mal collecting was the prime object of the expedition, a few birds were also pre- served, while notes were kept on all the species ellcountered; and it seems worth while to place on record some of the scattered information acquired regarding the details of distribution of certain of the species met with in the region we traversed. During this last month of the expedition collecting was carried on at four' points: at Bakersfield and McKittrick, in Kern County, and at Simmler and Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County. At Bakersfield our camp ?vas established in the hills about eight miles north of the town, at the western edge of the oil field. These hills, carrying a sparse growth of grass, are otherwise almost entirely devoid