The Gull

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Volume 6

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, JUNH, 1924

Number 6

JUNE MEETING: The next regular meeting of the Association will he
held on Thursday evening, 12th inst., at eight o’clock, in the Assembly Hall
of the Public Library, corner of McAllister and Larkin Sts. Take elevator to
third floor. Car lines No. 5 or No. 19.

The feature of the evening will he an address by Mrs. M. E. Delport on
“Some Bird Observations at Glenhrook and Fallen Leaf, in the Tahoe Dis-
trict.” Visiters will be made welcome.

3|t

JUNE FIELD TRIP will be taken on Sunday, June 15th, to Tennessee
Cove and the high bluffs overlooking the ocean, for a half-mile northerly
therefrom. We shall again hope for the colony of Baird cormorants, and that
the fog will keep away while we are searching for them.

Take 8:15 a. m. Sausalito Ferry and purchase round-trip tickets to Man-
zanita, 4Sc. Bring lunch and canteens, as there is no drinking water at
luncheon place.

lit ¥ ¥

PROCEEDINGS OF THE MAY MEETING: The eighty-eighth regu-
lar meeting of the Association was held on May 8th, in the Assembly Hall of
the San Francisco Public Library, with President Kibbe in the chair; Mrs.
Carl R. Smith, Secretary; thirteen members and four guests in attendance.

The business of the meeting consisted of the discussion and adoption of a
resolution presented by Mr. Lastreto, endorsing the Willis bill for the control
of pollution from oil, originating not only from floating vessels, but as well
from land sources.

The feature of the evening was a lecture by Prof. John 0. Snyder, of the
Department of Zoology of Stanford University on “Some Possible Results of
Bird Banding.”

Reference was made by the lecturer to what might be termed the three
stages of ornithological progress up to the present time: First, the Colonial,

characterized by pictures of birds in ponderous tomes, such as those produced
by Audubon and Bachman. Second, the Popularizing period, following 1850,
in which the labors of such men as Baird, Cones, and others engaged on the
governmental railroad surveys awakened and developed interest in this
branch of science, and laid the foundation for the Tiiiud, or the stage of
Exactitude, wherein the work of Merriam, Allen, Ridgway and many others
resulted in the building-up of great collections in museums, in the develop-
ment of classifications, and in contributions to the solution of the problem
of migrations. Coming to the present, the collecting of birds has, in a broad
general sense, reached its climax of usefulness in what may be termed the
civilized portions of the earth, and ornithology has, in a sense, become static.

THE GUEE

[ June

In this situation, bird-banding appears as a new tool, offering the promise
of a mass of new facts and a new impetus toward the solution of problems,
ancient and baffling. It may then properly be considered that we are enter-
ing upon a new stage, with fascinating opportunities and possibilities. The
records of the banding and the recapture of definite individuals will serve to
determine an infinite variety of unsettled questions concerning the move-
ments, affiliations, habits, range and migrations of birds. The work is simple
and light, and can be carried on by anyone who is competent to identify the
species and willing to undertake the interesting task.

Bird migrations, — an ancient and persisting mystery, mentioned in the
Bible, and engaging the attentions of men ever since! Much nonsense has
been overcome, but some persists. Some thought the birds went to the
moon. Mittendorf thought they were seeking the magnetic pole! Others
thought that they hibernated, the swallows burying themselves in mud
through the winter! Others thought that the glacial epoch influenced migra-
tions, but the birds have not changed materially since that time. Some
thought that the routes were determined by the guidance of old birds; others,
that sight alone served to guide the swarms.

The king salmon is a fresh water fish. When the hatched young have
reached the stage of flngerlings, some of them put to sea; others remain in
their native stream for a year and then put to sea and disappear. Two, four
or seven years are spent in the ocean, maturing, and they return to fresh
water to breed and then die. Prof. Snyder described the details of the experi-
ments through which it was demonstrated that, without parental or any other
guidance which we can conceive, these fish invariably return to the very
streams where they were hatched and from which they started on their
great adventure. Identification was effected by snipping two of the fins of
each fish, and furthermore by critical analyses of the development of the
scales. In comparison, the identification of banded birds is simplicity itself.

Following expressions of appreciation of the highly interesting nari’ative,
the meeting adjourned.

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The Board of Directors assembled after the meeting and elected to mem-
bership Mr. Arthur H. Myers of Berkeley. Mr. H. V. Grueningen was elected
to membership in April.

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SEEN IN THE HEADLIGHT BEAMS

Identifying birds and other animals by the aid of headlights has been
extremely difficult for me and I have been successful in very few instances in
spite of the fact that it is often necessary for me to make long night drives.

The first and only time I ever crossed Lake County was in the night,
entering the county above Ukiah and coming out into the Sacramento valley
near Williams, just at dawn. From what I saw, I should judge that Lake
County is largely treeless but heavily covered with brush and growth of this
sort seems to concentrate the light upon the road and thus facilitates obser-
vation.

I saw the dusky poor-will in great numbers. They cut across the lights
so close that one could see the white marking on their tails. Two barn owls
and numbers of night-flying small birds crossed my path. By eleven o’clock
there was a notable decrease in bird travel and by midnight it had completely
ceased. At 1:20 a. m. a rabbit jumped into the road and froze in the light.
A second later a bob-cat pounced upon it and if that cat’s tail had been any
longer than the first part of its name, I surely would have run over it, but he
took the rabbit.

1924 ]

THE GULE

Tlie hipliWtiy thioush Guviot;v Puss follows one cnnyon wall until it
reaches the narrow part, where it passes over a short bridge and follows the
other wall. One night, about ten o’clock, just as I made the turn and my
lights loomed bright against the dark rocks of the farther side, a rabbit
bounded into view at the end of the bridge and down out of the darkness
above it there dropped a great something which at that instant seemed to
me to be six feet long. My brakes shrieked and the great horned owl missed
his dinner as my presence evidently disconcerted him.

Last Fall, near Willits, a doe and two fawns were in the-road. I stopped,
and the doe walked off and fell to grazing in a near-by meadow but the fawns
were curious. They kept working nearer and as I was down-wind from them
they approached to within fifteen or twenty feet of me. There seemed to be
considerable difference in their ages, one still showing the spots. Occasion-
ally a coon put in his appearance and once, a mountain lion but thanks to
Mr. Bruce, they are becoming scarce.

I mention these instances to show that our state still has a goodly share of
wild life and I, for one, hope that our laws will be so administered as to
preserve the mammals as well as the birds.

» V ¥

Carl R. Smith.

Audubon’s Birthday, May 4th. was brought to the attention of radio listen-
ers through General Electric Company’s Station KGO, whence a brief account
of his life was broadcast by President Kibbe, on the invitation of the Com-
pany.

¥ ¥ ¥

BOOK NOTICES

Birds of Alabama. By Arthur H. Howell, Assistant Biologist, U. S. Bu-
reau of Biological Survey. Issued in co-operation with the Bureau by the
Department of Game and Fisheries of Alabama. 384 pp. 7 full page half-
tones and 31 full page cuts. Quotes state records and describes general habits
and food habits of each species, with comments on economic status. Lists
314 forms and concludes with a ten-page bibliography. This is substantially
a continuation of North American Fauna No. 45.

Birds and Their Attributes. Under this title the Marshall Jones Co., of
Boston, are planning to publish the series of lectures delivered by Glover M.
Allen, Secretary of the Boston Society of Natural History to members of the
New England Bird Banding Association last year. The book is to be fully
illustrated. Its character and scope will be described for the benefit of our
members upon publication, which is now planned for September.

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MAY FIELD TRIP was taken on Sunday, the 11th, to Golden Gate Park,
under the leadership of Mrs. Ynes Mexia. The day was fine, bright and cool.
Starting from the entrance at 43d Ave. and Fulton St., the usual route was
followed, with frequent detours to the many nests of humming birds which
had previously been located by the leader. The feature of the day was the
number of these nests and the completeness of the series, which furnished
object lessons in all stages and varieties. No less interesting was the nest
of a quail which was just bringing off her brood. A nesting robin was also
observed at a distance.

With so much of interest in the early part of the trip, lunch was taken on
an inviting point along Second lake. Numbers of individuals and species
were not as large as usual, but the time passed rapidly and the lecture at
the Academy of Sciences had commenced before the party reached there.

THE GULL

A number of the members enjoyed the motion pictures of Yosemite, exhibited
and explained by Supt. W. B. Lewis, who made the winter scenes and sports
a special feature of the lecture.

Birds encountered were: On the Bay, Forster terns and sandpipers. In
the Park, Pied-billed grebe, mallards and young, canvasback, ruddy in full
plumage, coots and young; quail and young, a flock of twenty six turkey
vultures, red-shafted flicker, Allen hummers galors and eleven nests, black
phoebe and western flycatcher; purple finch, linnet, green-back goldfinch, pine
siskin and Nuttall sparrow; junco, song sparrow, San Francisco towhee,
Hutton vireo, yellow warbler and Pacific salt marsh yellowthroat; pileolated
warbler. Vigors wren, many chickadees and nests in Boy Scout boxes, russet-
backed thrush and a nesting robin. Twenty nine species.

Members in attendance: Mesdemoiselles E. Ayer, Cohen, Fritts, Pettit

and Schroder; Mesdames Kibbe, IVIexia, Parry and Witt; Messrs. Kibbe and
Parry. As guests, Mesdemoiselles Ayer, Phyllis Bastian, Dykes, Farrell,
Hudson, Pringle, Simmons and Sulze; Mrs. Buckley; Mr. Burks, Dr. Goodman
and Scouts Mendelsohn, Peiser and Ed. Wagner, of Troop 17. Eleven mem-
bers and fourteen guests.

AUDUBON ASSOCIATION OF THE PACIFIC

FOR THE STUDY AND TJIE PROTECTION OF BIRDS

President

Recording Secretary. . . .
Corresponding Secretary.
Treasurer

,A. S. Kitibe 1534 Grove St., Berkeley

.Mrs. Carl R. Smith 563 42d Ave., San Francisco

-C. B. Lastreto 260 California St., San Francisco

-C. R. Thomas 1605 Rose St., Berkeley

Meets second Thursday of each month, at 8:00 p.m., in Assembly Hall of San Francisco
Public Library, Larkin and McAllister Streets.

Address Bulletin correspondence to President.

Subscription to Bulletin alone, 35o per year.

Single copies 6o