160 



THB OOLOOIST 



although there is no question but what 

 the bird really does eat small snakes 

 with such delectable morsels as 

 beetles, caterpillars, mice and centi- 

 pedes as side dishes. 



So beneficial a bird is entitled to 

 all protection, but unfortunately it is 

 rapidly becoming scarce in the more 

 settled parts of Southern California 

 because of the large mark it offers 

 to every "sportsman" with a gun, or 

 rather to that class of sportsmen 

 whose idea of a pleasant outing is to 

 kill every living creature in sight with 

 absolutely no regard to its beauty or 

 usefulness. It is probably only a 

 matter of time until the Road-runner 

 will go the v/ay of the Carolina Paro- 

 quet and the Passenger Pigeon unless 

 public sentiment is aroused in his be- 

 half. D. I. Shepardson, 

 Los Angeles, Cal. 



Spotted Gold Finch Eggs. 



This season I collected two sets of 

 American Gold Finch eggs of unusual 

 interest; one set of five taken Au- 

 gust 5th contained one egg blotched 

 on the large end and of a buff color. 

 The other set of four eggs taken Sep- 

 tember 7, contains three spotted eggs, 

 which were heavily incubated and one 

 egg being infertile. I would like to 

 know if you or anyone else have ever 

 heard of or seen spotted eggs of the 

 American Gold Finch. 



Joseph C. Hall, 



Lakewood, O. 



Spotted eggs of the Gold Finch are 

 of course not common, but it is not 

 very unusual to discover one or more 

 spotted eggs of this species in a set — 

 Editor. 



were about five feet back in a desert- 

 ed prairie dog burrow, the bound at 

 entrance to burrow was covered with 

 small pieces of dry horse dung as also 

 was the bottom of burrow. The female 

 was on the eggs. 



Some boys found a bird nest with 

 six eggs in it and told me about it. 

 From their description I thought it 

 was a House Finch but next evening, 

 June 6, we went out to see it. The 

 female flew off as we came near and 

 I readily saw it was a Lark Bunting, 

 one young had hatched out and on the 

 9th the six young made a nest full. 

 The nest was on the ground at the 

 foot of a bush about a foot high. They 

 were a common bird in this locality 

 but their nests were difficult to locate, 



I was considerably elated over a 

 find 1 made May 16. I was returning 

 from an afternoon's walk and was 

 near town when a small bird flew 

 from a cactus bush. I was unable to 

 see what it was but the nest held 

 three bluish white eggs. Later in 

 the day Mr. Herman E. Nash and I 

 returned and were successful in get- 

 ting near enough to the bird on the 

 nest to identify it as the Desert Spar- 

 row. On May 19th the nest was de- 

 serted. It had rained that day and 

 the nest and eggs were wet and cold. 

 1 failed to see anything more of the 

 birds. As far as I could learn this is 

 the first time this bird has been found 

 nesting in this locality, or even seen. 

 H. W. Nash 



Pueblo, Colorado, 1915, Notes. 

 On May 8 while walking around on 

 the prairie observing what bird life 

 was there, I found a nest of the Bur- 

 rowing Owl with eleven eggs. They 



Brother Hess. 

 Isaac E. Hess of Philo, Illinois has 

 just closed a contract for the third 

 years weekly contribution to the 

 Decatur Illinois Daily Herald to ap- 

 pear in its regular Sunday issue which 

 shows that the publishers as well as 

 the readers are satisfied with Mr. 

 Hess' observations as transcribed on 

 paper and that Brother Hess has 



