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THE OSPREY. 



when near it, with very rapid motions ; but what 

 surprised me most was that, after reaching the tree, 

 they traversed the very same route as at first. I 

 doubt if they varied an inch from the original course. 

 "About two weeks later on April 26, I visited the 

 spot again and began to enlarge the entrance. As 

 usual no bird appeared. Reaching in my hand I 

 caught hold of the female and tried to gently raise 

 her, but she clung to the nest in the most savage 

 fashion, always pulling a part of it after her. At last 

 however, I dragged her forth and tossing her into 

 the air, descended to procure my collecting can. As 

 soon as I had reached the ground Mrs. Tit was back 

 to her nest, and again I was put to the difficulty of 

 removing her. This time I guarded the entrance 

 carefully but she became so persistent in her efforts 

 to force an entrance that I was compelled to store 

 her away in my pocket until I removed the eggs. 

 Fortunately, only one of the latter was broken, 

 leaving seven minutely-speckled specimens for my 

 cabinet. During all this commotion the bird uttered 

 no sound, not even the hissing noise which I hereto- 

 fore found peculiar to this species when disturbed. 



"This is perhaps a rather extreme case as regard- 

 ing the birds' tenacity, yet with one exception I have 

 always found the bird a very close sitter, allowing 

 the collector to remove her from the nest. The 

 complement of eggs is from six to eight, but sets of 

 four and five are common, and on May 3, 1897, a 

 friend collected an unusually large set of twelve. 

 The eggs are, as a rule, pure white, sometimes verg- 

 ing on a creamy tint, but it is common to find two or 

 three eggs finely speckled, and occasionally whole 

 sets of spotted eggs are taken. The cavities occupied 

 are generally shallow, but one came under my notice 

 that was over two feet in depth and very narrow, so 

 that it was entirely out of the question to even in- 

 duce the parents to remove. At the best it is risky 



and the collector is fortunate if he procures an entire 

 set without finding that the bird has dug her claws 

 into one or more eggs, in his desperate attempts to 

 remove her. 



"This Titmouse is not very sociable and never 

 gathers into large flocks — in fact I have rarely seen 

 more than three together at any time of the year. 

 Like many others of the feathered tribe, he has an 

 inherent hatred towards owls. I remember finding 

 a nest of the California Screech Owl in a hollow 

 trunk of an oak and on the outside a cavity contain- 

 ing the nest of a titmouse. The thin partition sepa- 

 rating the two sitters was not such as to prevent the 

 scratching of the owl being distinctly audible to the 

 other. The female would often appear at the en- 

 trance of her home greatly agitated. Sometimes she 

 would mount the rim of the trunk and peer down into 

 the darkness as if to ascertain the cause of such a 

 commotion. The male when he visited his mate 

 would, perhaps at her request, fly repeatedly at the 

 poor owl. After removing the owl I put myself in 

 his place and began scraping the walls of the hollow. 

 For a couple of minutes the little housekeeper re- 

 mained by her charge, but it was too much for her 

 nerves and she soon appeared at the opening, uttered 

 a few notes and retired. This was repeated several 

 times with the same results, showing that it was 

 really the grating noise which disturbed her." 



The newly elected President, W. Otto Emerson, 

 gave a very interesting address dealing with the club, 

 past, present and future, after which Mr. Barlow 

 read an annual report of the Secretary's office, which 

 showed the present active membership of the entire 

 club to be 83. The new constitution being now in 

 force, the next meeting of the Northern Division will 

 be held at Stanford University March 5. 



AFTER THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



CHESTER BARLOW. 

 [Read before the Cooper Club, September, 1897.] 



THE afternoon of March 6, 1897, found me in rose up slightly but settled back as though loath to 



the southern part of Santa Clara County on leave her eggs. When I was half way up the tree 



an annual tour of the eagle territory, and she calmly spread her wings and sailed off, flying 



filled with that buoyant expectancy which marks a over a hill some distance away and not returning, 



visit to some favorite collecting ground for the first Reaching the nest at the end of a horizontal limb, I 



time in a season. An over -cast sky and frequent found two eggs, which are in some respects the 



showers combined to make the afternoon dreary in- oddest I have seen, but quite characteristic of this pair 



deed, but feeling that the Eagles had full sets at this of birds. Both are long and narrow, resembling the 



date, I concluded to visit one nest that afternoon ; so eggs of the Turkey Vulture in shape. The shell is 



with fish-basket I began the long tramp. The grass rough and pure white in color, and the markings of 



was tall and wet, but hill after hill was passed and rich sienna-brown and lilac, are confluent at the large 



finally there remained but a knoll to hide the eagle ends, with a few small dots spread over the rest of 



tree from view. It was after sunset and first came the egg. The eggs measure 3.04x2.09 and 3.09x2.07 



the top of the tree in dark relief against the sky, then inches, making a very striking set. 



the great nest well up in the tree and closer approach The nest was one which had been in use for years 



showed the bird setting closely. As I drew near she and was 35 feet up on a large horizontal limb of a 



