88 



THE OOLOGIST. 



.down beneath the brauches and fly 

 uoiselessly away. Tlu^ nest Avas in a 

 white oak forty feet up. aud lewariled 

 me with a set of two egg.s in which the 

 incubation was far advanced. The nest 

 .vas within two hundred aud fifty yards 

 ofaho;isj, which may aecouat for the 

 shyness of the birds. 



Sets four au<l five of two slightly' in- 

 eul)ated eggs each were taken on March 

 1st. Both sets were deposited in old 

 hawk's nests from which I got eggs of 

 liulm borealis in 1891, and were I'espec- 

 tively sixty-five and thirty feet from l he 

 ground. Set four was in a bass-wood 

 tree. In this case the owl did not leave 

 the nest when I pounded vigorously on 

 tiie trunk, and only did so when I was 

 about half-way up the tree. Some boys 

 had I'eported seeing the owl on this nest 

 two or three days before; otherwise tlie 

 set would probably have been lost, for 

 the tree was not of tlie kind that one is 

 apt to climb out of mere curiosity. In 

 the case of set five I could see the tail of 

 the owl projecting over the edge of the 

 nest, which was in a willow, and a small 

 stick thrown in that direction was sutti- 

 cieut to flush her. Set six of two slight- 

 ly' incubated eggs was found on March 

 19, in the same nest aud under the same 

 circumstances as set two. The presump- 

 tion seems to be that the same bird laid 

 them. 



This much for the sets I got, now as 

 to those I know I didtit get. 



On Feb. G. I found myself looking in- 

 tently at a dead oak tree wliich had a 

 hole in it about forty feet from the 

 ground. Rappingonthe tree produced 

 no results, and, as the hole looked A'ery 

 small anyway., I left il. A friend, whom 

 I will call Brown, informed me a few 

 weeks later that there w'ere three j'oung 

 owls in tha' tree. 



The second case was one of even 

 grealer chagrin to me. I had repeated- 

 ly passed under an old Crow's nest 

 twenty feet up in a ,<uinll rcil oak, and 

 tnc idcti had occurrrd tn nic that a 



Coopers Hawk might appropriate it later 

 in the season. It never presented the least 

 appearance ot being occupied until one 

 day in April I saw a pair of young Owls 

 almost as large as Pigeons sitting on it 1 

 and looking womleriugly at me. The 

 nest was small even for a Crow's, and 

 was situated among rather thick secoml -J 

 growth timber. It must have been that ^ 

 the old bird flew away out of sight every 

 time anj'oue approached. As this nest 

 w'as in the same timber as uest tliree, 

 and only a short distance from it, I am 

 inclined to think that the same wise old 

 Bubo lid finally succeed in outwitting 

 me. 



From my experiences with the Gt. 

 Horned Owl in 1892, I have certainly 

 learned never to take No for an answer 

 from any old nest or hollow trees until 

 all the pros and cons have been diligent- 

 ly investigated. As we are uoav at the 

 beginning of the cidiecting season, 1 am 

 in hopes that these notes will be of use 

 to some w ho are expecting to study the 

 interesting jy?<(^o virginimins in 1893. 

 Chas. R. Keyes, . 

 Mt. Vernon, Iowa. 



An Albatross at Long Beach, Gala. 



Out lie 26th of July I discovered a 

 specimen of the Short-tailed Albatross 

 w^hich was washed up on the i)each 

 near Long Beach, Cala. in San Pedro 

 Bay. 



I succeeded in skinning it and found 

 it to measure 7 ft. 8 in. from tip to tip. 



I was told by a young man, that 

 three years ago, in the winter aud dur- 

 ing a storm a dozen of these birds were 

 washed up on the beach in a length of 

 about ten miles, but tince then verj' 

 few have occurred. 



This may however have been some 

 other liird as the person who told me 

 is not ••well \i))^' in Ornithology. 



Sometime about 1880 I assisted in 

 cajjturiiig a young specimen of the 

 Sooty Alliatross on the ci>ast several 

 miles below hei"e. We succeeded in 

 partially domesticating him and dubed 

 him 'Peter 'J'he Great" Sad to say lie 

 did not long .survive his capture. 



I would like to hear from anyone 

 who is bimiliar witli any of the species 

 of Albatross. M". L. Wkeks. 



Los Angeles. Cal. 



