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May, 1912 AN AI*TERNOON'S FIELD NOTES 105 of first-hand precision, will always lie in the original record. No matter what plan of indexing the information therein contained, may be subsequently put into effect, my original narrative notes are always retained intact, and preserved with the greatest solicitude. Glendora, Los Angeles County, California, May 5, 1907; 12:45 P. M.--I am alone on the back end of $. W. Wood's orange ranch at the edge of a waste acre or so of land near the Little Dalton which is still running quite a stream. I iust saw a Black-chinned Hummer episode: I first saw a female pursued by a male into a thick low bush, where she alighted completely hidden. The male then proceeded to buzz back and forth before her within three feet of her, in the arc of a pendulum of not more than three feet chord. At the same time he uttered a deep buzz augmented at the middle of the swing. After about twenty of these swings, each occupying one second, he mounted up in the air about fifty feet and dove down in a far larger pendulum swing, arising to an equal height on the other side to repeat. At the bottom of the swing he uttered an augmented metallic quavering rattle. After repeating this maneuver twelve times he made off to a nearby Nicotiana where he fed from the pendant blossoms without further inter- est in the female, whom I lost sight of. 12:55--1 am in sight of a male Valley Quail stationed about ten feet up on the topmost strong-enough branch of a Nicotiana. He is "hollering", the single loud yell, like a child's shout at a distance. Two other quail, one up, the other down the Dalton, are answering at intervals. I have not heard the regular quail- call of three syllables. The quail that I am watching "hollers" at following inter- vals: 1-3-3-6-4-6-5-12-5-5-5-6-8-10-3-9-7-4-9-8-6-13-3-5-4-5-9-7-5-6-9-5-5-6-5-6-9- 5-5-7-4-8-7-7-6-11-6-8-4-4-3-6-7-5. In the above, the dashes represent the call, the numeral the number of seconds, by my watch, intervening. The other two quail have been calling at very similar intervals, and all have been keeping up the per- formance since 12:55 (it is now 1:7). 1:13--There is a profusion of a tall maroon-colored Pentstemon. Just saw a male Black-chinned Hummer rapidly visiting each flower around a spike. A male Lazuli Bunting is singing its hurried shrill song from the top of an oak. The bird is about seventy feet from me in an air line, perched composedly in a hunched-up attitude. He sings at following intervals (seconds) :--10-18-15- 13-11-12-10-11-11-13-19-11-12-13-13-12-11-9-12-13-13. A Long-tailed Chat is singing from the brush along the creek, his rambling incoherent series of whistles, chucks and squawks. 1:25--The quail is still at it. I heard him make several explosive sounds a while ago like a turkey gobbler. These were uttered in rapid succession in sput- tering fashion. A male Costa Hummingbird just flew close to me, feeding about the Pentstemons. A male Pileolated Warbler is investigating a pile of weed-over- grown orange brush nearby. All the vegetation is very rank, weeds growing up as high as my head on undisturbed ground. 1:33 A male Costa Hummer was just going through his mating perform- ances; and I am not at all sure there was any female 'beneath to warrant the energy spent. He mounted up, slowly rising to fully 200 feet (almost out of sight), then swung down with marvelous swiftness nearly to the ground (1? feet I should say), rising up more slowly to an equal height to.repeat. In his downward swoop he uttered a swelling shrill note of piercing quality and con- tinuous of tone, this dying out on the upward part of the swing. He repeated this