74 



THE OOLOGIST 



Home of California Cuckoo Discovered 



By Alfred Cookman, 



Deputy Fish and Game Warden for 



Los Angeles County In 



Southern California. 



A discovery of more than passing 

 interest was made last month by Prof. 

 L. W. Welch and the writer. For 

 many months the peculiar call of the 

 California Cuckoo (Occyzus america- 

 nus occidentalis) has lured the de- 

 votees of outdoor life, into by and for- 

 gotten paths, across the sloughs, 

 through the fields and into remote sec- 

 tions of this southland, only to meet 

 with baffling defeat. The secretive 

 habits of the rare and interesting spe- 

 cie of the feathered tribe has been an 

 endless source of delight to the writ- 

 er, who is sometimes accompanied by 

 friends of like turn of mind, but still 

 oftener, he goes alone on the trips of 

 investigation. 



We had been convinced for a long 

 time that the carefully concealed 

 nests were probably located in or 

 around the "Dominguez Rancho" in 

 the willow-bottoms, four miles north 

 on Long Beach in Los Angeles County, 

 Southern California. For several 

 months previous to the discovery of 

 the Cuckoo in the Rancho, we had in- 

 vestigated several prominent Bird 

 Retreats in this section of the coun- 

 try and also made several excursions 

 into Orange County on similar trips of 

 investigation. The itinerary of which 

 was to discover where the California 

 Cuckoo builds its nest. 



Nigger Sloughs, seventeen miles 

 south of Los Angeles was one of the 

 important localities that we were priv- 

 ileged to visit. We made several trips 

 to this place. In Orange County, Hog 

 Island in the Sunset Beach Gun Club 

 Reservation, Bolsa Chico, Lomita, Ca- 

 mut and other Reservations are some 

 of the fields we have visited. They 

 are not far distant from the "Domin- 



guez Ranch." Thousands of birds con- 

 gregate here to bathe in the cool water 

 and feed on marsh insects and Crusta- 

 cea. No Cuckoos have been observed 

 in these districts. 



The conditions being favorable on 

 the 28th of July, 1914, the search was 

 continued, and after being skillfully 

 lured here, there and yonder, by the 

 natural instincts of the mother cuckoo, 

 who futilly attempted to beguile the 

 investigators from her realm. After 

 hours of patient following across the 

 marshy fields and the swales of the 

 "Rancho," in a most protected and 

 seemingly impossible retreat, a large 

 nest composed of loose sticks, lined 

 with leaves and catkins situated in a 

 Cottonwood tree, twenty-three feet up, 

 was discovered. A shout of joy burst 

 from our mouths. We made several 

 attempts to climb to the nest, but 

 every trial was unsuccessful. The 

 tree would not hold our weight. We 

 could watch the female approach the 

 nest with food in her bills. We heard 

 distinctly the hungry cries of young 

 birds in the nest. A tiny head was 

 observed rising above the leaves. It 

 remained visible for a few seconds and 

 then disappeared. That was about all 

 that was apparent in the gapliig bit of 

 fledgings awaiting the bills of their 

 mother. The strange pleading notes of 

 the birds did not deter Prof. Welch 

 and the writer after knowledge from 

 a thorough investigation, because the 

 discovery is one which ovnithologists 

 have been seeking, and the nesting 

 habits and the period of migration has 

 been a closed book to lovers of bird 

 life. 



The writer has made several visits 

 since to the nest, and has been suc- 

 cessful in obtaining some photographs. 

 They breed extensively along the wil- 

 low bottoms of the interior valleys of 

 the state. Mrs. Eckstrom says, "As a 

 nest-builder, the California Cuckoo is 



