Page:Condor15(3).djvu/20

116 THE CONDOR Vol. XV it was not until we had reached this that we were aware that our journey was over for the time being. It is a shallow artificial lake eight or ten miles long by four wide. In the winter it and the extensive marshes and fields adjacent teem with ducks and geese. Here, as it is all free hunting ground, professional hunt- ers get in their deadly work. They are there to kill, and easily' Bnd means to evade the law. One hunter who lives there told us of the great numbers of Western Grebes (`4echmophorus occidentalis) that had been taken, and he open. ly stated that he r?ever missed a chance to take a grebe. During our stay not 'a single bird of this species was seen. A short distance from the lake, tules are found growing in the roadside ditches and here occurred many Red-wings--hybrids between .4. p, neutralix and A. p. californicus. There were also countless numbers of Arkansas Kingbird? (Tyrannus verticalis), and their nests were to be seen in about every fonrth one of an unusual type of telegraph pole. About eight feet up where two boards came together was a shady notch, and here the nests were situated. It was surely extraordinary to see the number of these nests for miles along the 3oads. West- ern Blue Grosbeaks (Guiraca c. lazula) were very numerous also on the tele- phone wires, where the neighboring fields contained a rank growth of nettles, and specimens were obtained gradlug from the soberly dressed males of the first year to those in the brilliant blue of full maturity. We located our camp in a deserted shack on top of the levee where we could get the benefit of the scant supply of wind, and where we could be com- paratively free from the torments of mosquitoes. While searching for a camping site, a pair of Long-billed Curlew (Numenms americanus) was flushed,--the only ones seen on the trip. In the immediate vicinity of the lake, hordes of Tri-colored Red-wings (Agelaiux tricolor) had their abode, with an occasional hybrid Red-wing, but the latter seemed to prefer the country farther back from ?l?e lake. The following morning we were up and away in two metal rowboats be- fore daybreak, bound for Pelican Island some three miles away. This we were soon approaching, which in the distance with the sun shining on it, looked like an enormous sheet striped black and white. This effect we soon disc0verect was caused by the combination of White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) and Farallon Cormorants (Phalacrocorax a. albociliatus),--the latter being nearest the shore while the former were farther up on the island. The Cormorants rose first in a body and beg?n circling overhead, but it was not until we were within a hundred yards that the Pelicans awkwardly and uneasily flopped into the air, kicking frantically. They settled far and near on the lake in companies and battalions, while some would return every few minutes to wheel low above us and see what we were up to. Several flocks could be seen at their favorite pastime of floating as mere white specks high up in the heavens. We found the take to be exceedingly shallow at this time and one could wade-in it almost anywhere in from six inches to two feet of water, though there were a few deeper places. The bottom is of adobe and it is the particular de- light o.f the large carp that infest the lake, to lie in the shallows with their backs sticking out and wallow violently in the ooze. Pelican Island, however, is formed of fine gravel and bits of broken shell. We estimated that there were six hundred occupied nests about equally di- vided between the Pelicans and Cormorants. The former had apparently pre- empted the middle and higher part of the island, while the latter were nesting closer to the water. The nests of the Cormorants were usually well constructed.