July 1888.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



109 



Birds of mixed charaulor are very numerous, 

 but I shall only flivo two instances, viz., the 

 Catbird and Kingbird. The Catbird, though 

 mainly insectivorous, is very paitial to straw- 

 berries, and eauses great loss in the spring to 

 the growers of that fi nil. This bird also eats 

 other birds eggs. The Kingbird is another 

 mainly insectivorous bird, but in liis ease he 

 excites no einnity except wlieii he comes into 

 collision with the prejudices of a man who 

 keeps bees. 



Beneficial Birds — .Ml insectivorous birds fre- 

 quenting the fields come under tins liead. The 

 Mockingbird, I'ieid and <'liii>ping Sparrows be- 

 ing the most useful in this section, especially 

 the latter two species, which are about the 

 oidy small birils abundant enough in fields and 

 gardens to do any good wortbv of llic name. 



The Barn Owl in California. 



BY CLAItK 1'. STRF.ATOK. 



If you will look carefully and examine liol- 

 low trees, church towers, deserted buildings 

 and rock cavities in the dill's, in one of Califor- 

 nia's bright days of sunshine, }ou will usually 

 find a resident at home. By approaching cau- 

 tiously to tlie entrance, you peep in and oliserve 

 a fearless looking, sleepy bird, orouclicd ilowu 

 upon a bed of hair and bom^s. He will at once 

 begin scjuinting and looking at you, sometimes 

 almost turning his head upside down. You ad- 

 vance to catch him and lie will make a noise 

 like escaping steam, and should you catch the 

 bird without getting your wrists and hands 

 lacerated by its sharp claws, you can considci- 

 yoiu'selt lucky. 



But the Barn Owl is of untold ben(^tit to the 

 California planter, and no other California rap- 

 torial does as little havoc and as much good as 

 this species. Where I have observed the bird 

 in Southern Calif'oinia, it feeds almost exclu- 

 sively on gophers, whieli is tJie crop raiser's 

 worst enemy. My experience goes to show 

 th.it the old birds stay in the same home 

 throughout the year, but on taking one 

 specimen, I would go again in a few days and 

 find another in its place, and by continuous ob- 

 servations I would be able to find an oul there 

 every month in the year. 



In the cavities of several liv(! oak trees, I 

 have found the cavities tilled a foot in di.-iineter 

 and three feet deep, with nothing but pellets of 

 gopher hair and bones that wi-r<' thrown up by 

 the owls. In Califorida, the Barn Owl begins 



to lay in January, the number usuall3' varies 

 from three to five. On .several occasions while 

 examining their nests when the old birds were 

 not anmnd, I found the eggs were covered to 

 a depth of an inch or more with gopher bair. 



The downy young biids .ire very interesting 

 to study. When disturbed, they kee|) up a con- 

 stant buz/ing. hissing sound, so that one might 

 mistake them for a colony of bees. 



While a single brood of young biids are be- 

 ing reared, the number of gophers that the old 

 ones destroy will amount into the hundreds. 

 Mr. P. C. Iliggins, a i)rominent horticultur- 

 ist and a very reliable man of .Southern Califor- 

 nia, daily observed a brood of the.se birds from 

 the time they hatched until they left their nest. 

 He says that tiiere was r.arely a morning when 

 there were not a dozen gophers lying at the foot 

 of the tree. They were tin' snr[ilus after what 

 they had eaten, and the number that lie collect- 

 ed was so great, that the dogs and eats made 

 daily visits to the tree to feeil upon them. 



The Number of Eggs in a Set. 



I!V W. W. <iIL5[AN, MINNKAl'OLIS, MINN. 



I have lead with a great deal of interest tlie 

 discussion in recent numbers of theO. & O., re- 

 garding the number of eggs in a set. 1 have 

 never written for your magazine as I do not 

 consider myself well posted. I have always had 

 to work all the week days, having only Sundays 

 for the pursuit of my favorite study. But in 

 this case, I thought perh.-ips the observations of 

 even so young an enthusiast as myself might 

 be of interest. 



To begin with, I must iufiirm the readcfs of 

 the O. & O., that up to the season of 1887, my 

 observations have been confined to a very small 

 portion of Dane County, Wis. Tills last sea- 

 son, however, I went on a farm in Freeborn 

 County, Minn., where I had some opportunities 

 to make observations through the week. 



1 will ('ommence with the (Jatbird. This in- 

 teresting bird was very common in both i)laces 

 I have spoken of. In Dane County, Wis., I 

 have examined many of their nests, and found 

 the sets almost invariaby to consist of four 

 eggs, and very rarely three. What few nests I 

 examined in Freeborn County, Minn., containeil 

 without exception three eggs each. 



With the Brown Thrasher, the sets varied ' 

 from four to six in both localities. 



In regard to the Kingbird, I notice that sev- 

 eral of your correspondents seem inclined to 



