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156 THE CONDOR Vol. XV air, Otl?s asio bendirei, our neighborhood pet, quavered a benediction and was duly enrolled as Number m8. In the following list, arranged in the order of Pacific Coast Avifauna Num- ber 8, I have forborne to give scientific names in order not to burden bibliography overmuch nor to try needlessly the patience of our long-suffering editor. Bird- h0rizoning is, confessedly, a "popular" exercise. Its judgments are snap judg- ments, and so are liable to a certain percentage of error. What that percentage may be depends, of course, upon the observer; upon his familiarity xvith field recognition marks, especially bird notes; his knowledge of the locality traversed and its ordinary and accredited bird population; and, most of all, upon his con- scientiousness and general sobriety of judgment. Given such qualifications in any. reasonable degree, and no other fair-minded worker can afford to ignore the testimony of such a list or dispute the value of bird horizons. To do so (and some have done it) [not the editor] is to show the captious and hypercritical spirit which strains out gnats of subspecific inquiry and swallows camels of generic ignorance. In the following list, for .example, I will guarantee the specific validity of every record save Arizona Hooded Oriole (bird not seen and I have not yet had the coveted opportunity to compare the scolding notes of cucullatus nelsoni and bullocki directly), Pied-billed Grebe (bird not well seen), Red-breasted Mergan- ser (female, might have been the rarer americanus), and Herring Gull (flying bird, might have been a bleached example of occidentalis, or a hybrid such as oc- curs off the Washington Coast); and the subspecific validity of all save Califor- nia (?) Yellow Warbler and Pileolated Warbler, both of which were recorded by notes only. There! That clears my conscience. How does it strike yours? To quote or not to quote, that is the question. Oh, by the way, we did have a gun, and we did "take" California Purple Finch and Forster Tern. Next! Western Grebe 1 Sanderling 20 Western Wood Pewee 8 Eared Grebe 1 Greater Yellowlegs 1 Western Flycatcher 6 Pied-billed Grebe 1 Spotted Sandpiper 1 Black Phoebe 1 California Brown Pelican30 Hudsonian Curlew 60 Cassin Kingbird 2 Farallon Cormorant 40 Black-bellied Plover 3 Western Kingbird 4 Brandt Cormorant 20 Killdeer ? California Horned Lark 8 Least Bittern 1 Semipalmated Plover 20 Russet-backed Thrush 2 Hyperonca Blue Heron 3 Snowy Plover 60 Western Bluebird 1 Snowy Egret 1 Ruddy Turnstone I. Pasadena Thrasher 1 Black-crowned Night Her- Black Turnston. e 3 Western Mockingbird 3 on 8 Glaucous Gull '3 San Diego Wren 2 Red-breasted Merganser 1 Western Gull 80 Western House Wren 4 Cinnamon Teal 10 Herring Gull 1 Pallid Wren Tit 20 Shoveller 40 Bonaparte Gull 200 Western Martin 3 Pintail 1 Forster Tern 120 Cliff Swallow 200 White*winged Scorer 20 Western Mourning Dove 12 Rough-winged Swallow 2 Surf Scorer 20 Belted Kingfisher 1 Bank Swallow 100 Ruddy Duck 15 California Screech Owl 1 Barn Swallow 1 Turkey Vulture 20 Pacific Horned Owl 1 Northern Violet-green Sparrow Hawk 1 Allen Hummingbird 4 Swallow , 4 Western Red-tailed Hawk 1 Anna Hummingbird 10 Cedar Waxwing 40 Valley Quail 20 Black-chinned Humming- Phainopepla 6 Sofa Rail 1 bird 20 Western Warbling Vireo40 Coot 60 White-throated Swift 6 -Hutton Vireo 10 Northern Phalarope 1 Nuttall Woodpecker x Plain Titmouse 2 Least Sandpiper 200 California Woodpecker 12 Coast Bush-Tit 20 Red-backed Sandpiper 30 Red?-shafted Flicker 6 California Jay 6 Western Sandpiper 500 Olive-sided Flycatcher 2 Lutescent Warbler 4