126 THE CONDOR Vo. XI a sort of boomerang flight, hover and return to within sixteen feet (actual measure- ment) of the starting point. The bird flew so slow it seemed to have difficulty in keeping in the air; this appeared to be a flight of observation. The bird turned its head and scrutinized me with one of its red eyes while flying off. The legs were hanging down until the turning point was reacht. They were then drawn up to the body, and dropt as she settled out of sight in a tangled mass of weeds. The whitish eggs have a scarely perceptible tinge of pink. They are finely speckled with bright reddish-brown and obscure lilac dots. The average measure- ment of the eggs is .95x.71 inches. The eggs exhibit great variations in size and shape but are rather uniformly markt. I believe the eggs of this species could not be mistaken for those of any other bird. The shells are of close-grained hard texture. They'dpossess greater durability than any eggs of similar size that I know NEST AND SET OF SIX EGGS OF TI-IE CAI,IFORNIA BI,ACK RAIl,, IeOCATED NEAR SAN DIEGO, APRII, 8, 1909 of. One year's exposure to the elements is not enough to destroy the shell. In 1908, there were many eggs of the California Black Rail floated out of the nests by the high tides, probably by those of March 30 and 31. I examined upwards of thirty "floaters" during May of that year. They were then rotten and partially dried up. Fourteen "floaters" that were whole and perfectly dry were pickt up during the present season; most of them were bleacht entirely free of markings A few that had lodged beneath the vegetation were still speckled These dry eggs were at least ten months old; possibly the salt water acted as a preservative Six- teen old nests were found in the immediate vicinity of "floaters." On several occasions, eggs were found lodged in weeds at a higher elevation than the nest from which they had floated. About one third of the nests were built on or within two
