Boston and New York.
A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO
FLORENCE A. MERRIAM
after, we'll a-birding together.
Shakespeare.
ILLUSTRATED
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1896
By FLORENCE A. MERRIAM.
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
PREFATORY NOTE.
The notes contained in this book were takenfrom March to May, 1889, and from March toJuly, 1894, at Twin Oaks in southern California.Twin Oaks is the post-office for the scatteredranch-houses in a small valley at the foot of oneof the Coast Ranges, thirty-four miles north ofSan Diego, and twelve miles from the Pacific.
As no collecting was done, there is doubtabout the identity of a few species; and theirnames are left blank or questioned in the listof birds referred to in the text. In cases wherethe plumage of the two sexes is practically identical,and only slight mention is made of thespecies, the sexes have sometimes been arbitrarilydistinguished in the text.
Several of the articles have appeared before,in somewhat different form, in 'The Auk,' 'TheObserver,' and 'Our Animal Friends;' all theothers are published here for the first time.
The illustrations are from drawings of birdsand nests by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and from[iv]photographs taken in the valley; together withsome of eucalyptus-trees from Los Angeles, forthe use of which I am ind