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Mar., 1916 THE I?ARALLON RAILS Ol? SAN DIEGO COUNTY 59 marsh enough to disturb the birds. This call is chiefly used during the early mating season, and also as a protest against intruders in their domain. Occa- sionally, however, I have heard it even in the late fall. With these birds there is a noticeable lack of uniformity in their nesting dates, as well as a great variation in the nests themselves as constructed by different pairs of birds. Sometimes the nests are raised well off the ground, but this is unusual. The more typical ground nests are greatly affected by the tides. Some that I have seen were fully five inches thick, with as many as three distinct layers, showing how often reconstruction had been necessary. The earliest nesting date of which I have record was March 24, 1912, when a complete set of five eggs was taken. three times on account of recent rains and high tides. The latest date which I have encountered was May 25, 1909. On that day I started on a last casual "hike" through the marsh with nothing more than that undying hope, born in all bird ? hunters, to offset my slim chance of finding any- thing so late in the spring. Suddenly, how- ever, I flushed a Farallon Rail, and after careful search I found a well ele- vated nest, some ten inches above the ground, which contained four partly incubated eggs at that time. These eggs are the smallest which I have ever seen, tending, in fact, to be almost runts. They measure, respectively, .87x.69, .94x.74, .95x.72, .95x.73, with an average In this case the nest had been rebuilt Fig. 24. FARALLON RAIL, PHOTOGRAPHED IN CAPTIVITY: UNDECIDED WH?I?HER TO CROUCH AND HIDE, OR TO DIVE INTO THE DENSE I?IARSH VEGETATION of .92x.72. The normal eggs average about 1.02x.90, these figures denoting inches. Another set, which is the one shown in the photograph (fig. 23), was found on the late date of May 13, 1914. The eight eggs of this clutch constitute one of the largest authentic sets known. It was situated in the thickest of salieornia, or fleshy marsh weed, and w. as found after a steady tramp of four hours duration. The method of search for these rarities may be of some interest to Co?ooR readers. Sometimes their discovery is due to sheer good luck, but much more often it is the fruit of hard and persistent work. The thickly matted marsh growth is so dense that it is impossible to see through it, so that one has to turn