THE UOLOGJSJ . 



1U3 



lu oue place the stream is quite deep 

 aud narrow as it Hows betweeu the 

 rocky sides of the ravine. I was walking 

 ia front stepping from boulder to bould- 

 er and carryiug the climbers, while H. 

 carried the egg basket. Taking a step 

 forwara I ])auseii, when H. thinking 

 I would keep on, started to place his 

 t(jot on the same buulder I was stand- 

 ing on. rhere was not room. He dis- 

 covered it too late and not bein<jal)le to 

 regain his balance, took an unintention- 

 al seat, f)artly in the water and partly 

 on a boulder, hohling the basket of 

 eggs above him. None were broken, 

 and he was sgon on his ftet again, not 

 vei'y wet. 



Close to this place is a small v.ater 

 fall,' so standing on the edge of the 

 pool it makes, we enjoyed the cooling 

 effect of the mist floating over us. 

 About a mile further up we reached the 

 side ravine and following it up came to 

 the nest I had tried to climb to in '1)2. 

 The Hawk flew otY and joining its mate 

 circled overhead. All the nesis which 

 we found during the day hail the birds 

 on except one. This one was where 

 we secured the second set of four. The 

 cloudy day inay have caused them to 

 remain at home. In all but one case 

 the bird on being disturbed circled 

 overhead. The exception was where 

 we found the flrst set of four when the 

 bird pel died near l)y. The set was 

 more Ijadly incubated than the others 

 and I think the bird had grown more 

 sluggish from setting longer so did not 

 circle around. 



But to come back again to our last 

 nest 65 or 70 feet up in a sycamore over 

 a small stream. H. was soon up to it 

 and lowered me the three eggs. They 

 had a greenish tinge on the outside of 

 the shell atiding much to their appear- 

 ance. It faded greatly after blowing 

 and may possibly h;i.e been caused by 

 the gn^en oak leaves with which the 

 nest was lined. In shape, texture of 

 the shells, and lack of markings, they 



greatly resfnible a set of the European 

 Buzzard now in my collection. Add- 

 ing these Hawk's eggs to the ones al- 

 ready in the basket we now had sixteen 

 all of the Western Red-tail and walk- 

 ing over to the station we took the 

 train back to Eos Angeles, very tired 

 but pleased with our success. 



ln'94 we were unable to vi.sit this col- 

 lecting ground, but on March 27, '95 we 

 did so, getting off at one station and 

 walking to the other the same as before 

 except that we reached the stream 

 higher up the second time. We were 

 approaciring the stream when 1 saw a 

 nest on the slender limb of a sycamore 

 in a side canon. In crossing the 

 main stream to go to it, H. looked up 

 and saw another nest in the same place 

 where we found the second set of four 

 eggs in '93. Not much time being lost 

 in getting up to it we found it deserted, 

 overgrovvn with barlej', composed of 

 sticks, rubbish, a dead rat, and con- 

 tained two eggs of the Western Horned 

 Owl. One of the eggs had a veiw small 

 puncture through the side of the shell 

 but not tlirough the inside skin, so the 

 egg did not grow stale. The other had 

 two punctures, -vas stale, and had been 

 almost entirely eaten out by white 

 worms. The day had l)een cloudy and 

 a little rain had fallen, but now the rain 

 came down in eai'nest and kept it up 

 without an intermission for the remain- 

 der of the dav and part of the night. 



The other nest about 05 feet over a 

 stream, now drew our attention, and 

 as the Red-tail flew ofl' our doubts 

 about trying to climb to it vanished. 

 Half way up against the tree trunk was 

 an old Owl's nest. H. found it no easy 

 matter to take the single egg from its 

 bed of li herons bark and green syca- 

 more leaves for the small limb swayed 

 under his weight, the Ijirds circling 

 overhead as lie did so uttering their 

 cry of alarm as usual. On blowing 

 this egg which is now in my collection, 

 it was found to contain a small embryo, 



