ches from R. R appeared to be more startled than B , but recovered his poise quicker. March 28th. to 30th.,incl. Due to absence no notes taken on these days, but on my return after 6 P.M. on the 30th., Julio reported that there were only two young thrashers in the nest. Accordingly I went to the nest at 6:30 P.M. and found Nova in it. She stepped out as I advanced my hand and Brownie immediately appeared, jumped on to my hand, began pecking it as hard as he could, seized one finger and squeezed it hard trying to "throw it away", clearly much annoyed. I withdrew my hand, he settled in the nest at once, immediately took proffered worms and fed the young, forgetting his previous discomposure. Only two chicks were in the nest. The answer may be: (1) One removed by Nova as suspected in the case of nest 8 (?) last year, or one died and was removed. (2) Rhody or a jay. Mocking-bird. The mocking-bird was back in the cage, having been released every day. Occurrence of mockers. (Incidentally, while away, the mocking bird was found through- out the Santa Clara valley from Niles to several miles south of San Jose, in full song, about the houses and settlements. Ditto the west side of the San Joaquin valley from about Tracy to the highway leading to Pacheco pass. Ditto from the southern end of the same valley along the high- ways on the east side and the middle up to Tracy. They were "everywhere", not looked for especially, mostly seen casually while driving along the roads). Wild flowers. This trip was taken primarily for the purpose of seeing and photographing in motion picture color, the wild flowers, for which, due to plentiful rain fall, this has been an especially favorable year. A distance of about a thousand miles was covered. To one who has know the immense sheets of vivid color spread over the landscape for hundreds of square miles in the past, the de- truction of the past 50 years due to grazing and cultivation of the soil comes as a frightful shock. It may be said truthfully that, with the exception of remote, uncultivable and almost inac- cessible regions, all this is gone forever! Formerly , except in cities, one might say that everybody, in season, had this color extending from his own door-step for miles. The deep and rich bottom lands were covered with sheets of yellow, orange, purple, blue, cream, white, red and intermediate hues and shades, in addi- ton to the waste lands, but now it is only a small part of the very worst (agriculturally speaking) waste lands and the thin-