THE OOLUGIST. 



ii; 



habitants. Us varied excitements and 

 glad surprises, is tlie more iutere.stidg 

 of the two. 



Of course it is exciliug to poke your 

 nose into the uest of some rare bird 

 when yoa are looking after another 

 thing, or after searching hopelessly, to 

 come suddenly upon some rare find I 



I have in mind a very pleasant trip 

 that I took in the spring of 1891. 



It was .-hortly after the middle of 

 May that my friend Will Lawrence pro- 

 l)0sed a few days collecting trip. 



We started from his home near Los 

 (iatos early on one of those mornings 

 lliat only Califtirniau's can know. The 

 sk}' was faultless, the only .^peck to be 

 seen was an eagle soaring iiigli above 

 us, the whole bright scene of softly roll- 

 ing emerald hil's uitli here and there a 

 bUi.sh of crimson blossoms or a crown of 

 golden poppies, smileii in the bright 

 sunshine and the birds all tried to out- 

 do each other ij singing the welcome 

 to the glorious day. 



Al)Out a month before we had passed 

 over the same road on oui- way to a mag- 

 pie roost where we got some tine speci- 

 mens. 1 noticed many very familiar ob- 

 jects on our way. Here was a tall syca- 

 more with a VV. Red-tailed Hawk' snest 

 i n the top from which we had taken a fine 

 set of eggs , It was now deserted. In 

 another tree was a hole from which had 

 been taken a set of Sparrow Hawk's eggs 

 anil there the bridge where the Pho'be's 

 nest was. We had now gone about ten 

 miles and as we reached the crest of a 

 hill we let our hor.se stop to rest and 

 looket\ across the valley to see the wliite 

 dome of J-ick Observatory shining from 

 its place on Mt. Hamilton. 



On the other side of the hill our road 

 followed the I^lagas creek for a few 

 miles, then we crossed the stream and 

 after an hours drive came to our lirst 

 stopping place. We liitclied our animal 

 to a tl'ee and wheeled the cart into the; 

 shade. 



Our Hrst piece of work was to visit a 



bridge a hundred yards back on the 

 road. A tinj"^ streamlet ran along a 

 rocky bed and as it reached the bridge 

 had a fall of about 20 feet. The body of 

 the bridge was on a level with the upper 

 portion of the stream and underneath 

 it was dark and cool. As we climbed 

 down and under a sudden whirr of 

 wings startled us, but we soon recover- 

 ed, and what was our delight! There on 

 a shelf of the rock, in a kind of corner 

 where the mist and spray of the water- 

 fall kept it always green was an oblong 

 ball of moss and in the side a smooth 

 round nole. We have all heard of the 

 Water Ouzels' nest but there's nothing 

 lika seeing one. "A thing ot beauty is a 

 joy forever" said I as I waited to see 

 Will draw four white beauties from the 

 nest — but the young ou/el he pulled out 

 was such a beauty, (v) that we left him 

 to be a "joy forever" to his mother. 



We left the bridgd and soon struck 

 the main stream which we followed up 

 for quite a distance. As we went along 

 we came upon a Hat shelving rock that 

 hung over the water and from under 

 which a Biack Phd'be Hew. We soon 

 discovereil the nest which Will got by 

 lying Hat on the edge of the rock and 

 rea(;hing under while I held his heels. 



The nest was the usual one of mud 

 and rootlets and contained 5 of the 

 prettiest eggs I ever saw of that species. 

 They were very large and of a transpar- 

 ent creamy white with a few minute 

 blood red specks scattered over them. 

 During the day we found another nest 

 of that species among the tangled roots 

 of an upturned tiee. 



As we made our way up, the cMnon 

 became narrower and large aider tices 

 lined the sides of the stream. About 

 the bases and among the lower limbs of 

 these trees were masses of dei)ris that 

 had been brought <!own by the recent 

 freshets. It was there tiiat we found 

 the Western Flycatcher nesting. It 

 usually builds its nest from 1 ft. to 8 ft. 

 from llie ground. We look several sets 



