Mar., x9o6 I SUMMER NOTES FROM A SANTA BARBARA GARDEN 49 that it was impossible to get a photograph of him without a focal plane shutter, which I could not find in the town. Well, some other time--perhaps ! In contra-distinction to the experiment of changing the ?vatering place of the birds was one of educating them up to a better one without changing its location. Along a stone wall supporting a road in an unoccupied place adjoining, was a hydrant that dripped very, very slightly; yet it was near the top of a low ridge and not much below the tops of some trees where birds could conveniently alight to rest from their wanderings. I procured a common shallow kitchen bowl, put it on the low wall and had just elevation enough to get water to it from the faucet by a piece of bamboo. Birds had long been in the habit of coming to this faucet and hanging there long enough to get a sip or two of water before giving place to the next comer. 'I'here was no shelter for the observer near. but I rigged up one by means of a clothes horse covered with some old matting and fastened to the iron railing which ran along the wall, and let tile birds get used to it. In this instance they soon overcame their fear, and as the bo?vl was in plain sight to all CALIP'ORNIA JAY avian passers-by it was not long before it bad a host of customers. These were principally green-backed goldfinches and house finches tho occasionally some other species would drop in. One Anthony towhee xx'as a regular patron and used to hold possession for ten or fifteen minutes at a time while more timid cus- tomers waited patiently around for him to give them a chance. A California jay (Aphdocoma californica) visited the spot once in a while after the bowl was established there and I had the good fortune to get a pretty fair snap at him one morning, tho he was a little too near the camera to get the best result. He was so wary, however, that it was a case of then or never. He came again several times while the camera was set and I was ready for him, but the glint of the metal parts always seemed to make him suspicious, and never again did he stay long enough or get in a sufficiently favorable position for another snap. As the iron railing made of 2-inch pipe was very unsightly in a picture it seemed feasible to decorate the perpendicular portion in the center of the back- ground with sage-brush and get the visitors accustomed to so distinct a change.
