THE OSPREY. 



71 



California department 



Donald A. Cohen, Editor, Alameda, Cal. 



THE cold weather in the Northwest is 

 driving- birds unusually far South 

 this winter. One bird, not coming- 

 directly under my notice was a Snowy Owl, 

 a fine specimen, shot almost within the city 

 limits by a hunter, on the edg-e of San 

 Francisco Bay. This bird was taken 

 Dec. 2, in broad day lig-ht, sitting- on the 

 hard, sandy beach below a larg-e salt 

 marsh, and was 

 quite closel}' 

 approached 

 without exhibi- 

 ting- any fear. 

 L. Belding- in 

 "Land Birds of 

 the Pacific Dis- 

 trict," g-ives its 

 record from 

 British Colum- 

 bia, Washing- 

 ton and Oreg-on, 

 as a rare winter 

 resident to rare 

 winter visitant, 

 and in another 

 work it is re- 

 corded as hav- 

 ing- occurred in 

 Texas, South 

 Carolina and 

 Bermuda. From 

 this it is appar- 

 ent that a few 

 occasional y 

 reach California 

 althoug-h no direct record is g-iven. Three 

 more Snowy Owls were reported having- 

 been taken within a few days of this one 

 in Sonoma County, about 75 miles north 

 of Alameda County, while from consider- 

 ably farther north, in Humbolt County, 



San Dieg-o in June '88 and contained the 

 two eg-g-s slig-htly incubated. The nest 

 rests on one of the "links" or joints of the 

 bushy cactus ( OpiDifia sp. ) so abundant 

 in Southern California. In the picture 

 you can see where the branch was broken 

 from the main trunk. 



The nest is a slig-ht thing-, as Hummer's 

 nests g-o, with only a thin bottom, so that 

 two or three of the sharp spines project 

 ag-ainst the eg-g-s in a formidable manner. 

 This nest was detected by the usual 

 method of watching- the female bird. 



RiCHAKD C. McGregor. 



NEST AND EGGS OF COSTA's HUMMINGBIRD 

 TAKEN FROM CACTUS. 



f'dta ) was 

 recent trip, 



added to his 



W. Otto Em- 

 erson, of Hay- 

 wards, is spend- 

 ing- the g-reater 

 part of Decem- 

 ber at Pacific 

 Grove, where 

 he will put in 

 the time with 

 oils and canvas, 

 reproducing- 

 som e of the 

 g-rand coast 

 scenery and in- 

 cidentally take 

 a few photo- 

 g-raphs and 

 capture an}' 

 stray water 

 birds of value 

 on that thickly 

 traveled water- 

 h i g- h w a y . A 

 Rhinocero s 

 Auklet ( Ccror- 

 Jiinca monoce- 

 coUection on a 



the San Francisco 

 Dec. 8, that Snow}' 

 in flocks. 



Chronicle prints on 

 Owls were observed 



NESTS of Hummers are always an 

 object of especial interest to the 

 eg-g- collector, and as I have a pic- 

 ture of a rather peculiar one, I thoug-ht 

 the readers of The Osprey would like to 

 see it also. This nest was collected near 



The reg-ular monthly meeting of the 

 Cooper Club was held Dec. 5, at San Jose 

 at the residence of C. Barlow, with a fair 

 attendance, including^ two visitors. Offi- 

 cers were nominated for 1897, several 

 papers were read, the routine of business 

 g-one throug-h and the club adjourned to 

 meet Jan. 9, at San Jose. 



R. S Wheeler of Alameda, Cal., is contemplat- 

 ing- a trip to Alaska next spring", having- eng-ag- 

 ed an easy situation with a ftir company. He 

 intends to hustle for some of the rare eg-gs found 

 there. 



