THE OOLOQIST 



1921 



To our hundreds of subscribers, we 

 wish each and every one a Happy 

 Prosperous New Year. Very many of 

 you liave remembered us with Holiday 

 Greetings, wliich we mucli appreciat- 

 ed, and the only reason we have not 

 replied in each instance in kind, is the 

 fact that we have been engaged most 

 of the month of December, in trying 

 a desperately fought lifw suit, or 

 rather a criminal case in which six 

 lawyers were engaged. When one gets 

 mixed up in that sort of melee, there 

 is little time for anything else. 



We look forward to a pleasant and 

 successful year oologically, and trust 

 the same will be the portion of each 

 one of The Oologist's large family. If 

 we all push a little we can put the 

 necessary pep into the game and 

 bring oology up to the desired stand- 

 ard, and amid the desired enthusiasm. 

 There are two things to do requiring 

 immediate, attention, and the very 

 first is for everyone to renew your 

 subscription to the only oological pub- 

 lication in America, The Oologist, the 

 next is to secure your permits with 

 State and Federal. 



R. M. Barnes. 



HOW DO THEY GET THAT WAY? 



Some of us keep liens, and if we 

 only knew how, we would get eggs, at 

 least more than we do. 



Most field men know tliat many 

 birds will, if their eggs are taken, at 

 once nest again. Owls will for at 

 least three times. Flickers will by 

 the season. Gulls will, and so on. 

 Normally these birds will nest but 

 once in a season, yet when robbed can 

 and do at once nest again. I have 

 taken Screech Owl sets of five and 

 within two weeks more a third set of 

 two well in('u))atpd. How do they do 

 it? It would help us a lot with our 

 hens if we could know. Does anyone 

 know? I don't, and 1 have spent many 



liours and many seasons trying to find 

 out. 



F. M. Carryl. 



CALIFORNIA SHRIKE 

 This member of the butcher-bird 

 family is one of the familiar birds in 

 the vicinity of Benicia, California Our 

 California Shrike has the same relish 

 for small birds, mice and grasshoppers 

 and other insects as its eastern rela- 

 tives, the loggerhead and Northern. In 

 this vicinity it nests in scrubby trees, 

 frequently in a row of trees along the 

 roadside, though sometimes in a lone 

 tree in a field. The locust is a favor- 

 ite tree with them. In construction 

 the nest is rather bulky and the in- 

 terior is lined with- any soft material, 

 including feathers, hair, wool, etc., 

 gathered from the barnyard. The 

 eggs number five to seven, — I find 

 sets of seven common. The best sea- 

 son for eggs is during April and the 

 forepart of May. 



One of my prettiest specimens of 

 nests is one of this bird taken with 

 seven eggs on May 9thtli, 1919 along 

 the Benicia-Vallejo road. This nest 

 is espec;ially well rounded and softly 

 lined. It was placed eight feet from 

 the ground in a small lone locust tree 

 which was in full bloom. 



Emerson A. Stoner, 



Benicia, Calif. 



THE GREAT HORNED OWL 



.I5y H. H. .Johnson. Pittsfield, Maine. 

 Who-who, Who-who, Who-who, ho; 

 thus was I greeted this spring, when 

 I commenced operations in my sap 

 berth making maple syrup. Just a 

 might startling to the nerves to be re- 

 quested sometime in the middle of the 

 night to explain "Who" I was and my 

 business there in that man's wood at 

 that time of night. I commenced to 

 tap the twentieth of March this year; 

 there had been a fine run of sap for a 

 few days, and that I might keep 



