223 



THE OOLOGIST 



ledges, which are conimon along the 

 south bank of the streams in this part 

 of the state. In holes and fissures 

 in these ledges they usually nest. 



March 25, 1909, Mr. Guy Love and 

 I were out loolving for a Golden Ea- 

 gle's nest, we had had no success and 

 late in the afternoon Mr. Love pro- 

 posed that we should give up the 

 search and on our way home stopped 

 at a ledge of rocks where we had 

 been told a Western Horned Owl had 

 nested the previous year. After a 

 great deal of climbing and looking in- 

 to many holes and cervices, we at 

 last located a nest containing one 

 egg. The nest was in a cervice in 

 the face of a cliff about forty feet 

 up. The crevice was parallel to the 

 base and jierhaps ten inches wide, 

 about five feet below the nest there 

 was a narrow ledge, after climbing to 

 this we could just see the egg. It 

 was lying in a depression nearly 

 round and fourteen inches in diame- 

 ter by seven inches deep, and con- 

 tained no lining. From all appearan- 

 ces and the amount of debris, bones 

 and etc., lying near the nest, this site 

 had been used for many generations 

 and by constant use the dei^ression 

 had been worn in the solid rock. 

 Neither of us touched the egg or put 

 our hands in the crevice, hoping to 

 secure a complete set later. During 

 our stay at the nest we did not see 

 either of the birds. 



April 8, we returned to the place 

 but to our disappointment the nest 

 had been deserted. After a short 

 consultation we decided that the fe- 

 male would ])robably make another 

 nest in the vicinity. A careful search 

 was begun and resulted in flushing a 

 female from a nest containing two 

 eggs. This nest was about half a 

 mile from the first and situated in 

 a very ojien place, being on a ledge 

 not over eight feet up. The eggs 



were in a depression about two in- 

 ches deep hollowed out of the sand 

 on the ledge. We supposed this to 

 be the same bird that had made the 

 other nest, so we did not climb to 

 the nest but viewed it from the top 

 of the cliff above the ledge, hoping 

 that another egg might be laid if the 

 nest was not distui'bed. 



Two days later I returned to this 

 nest alone, counting on at least a 

 set of two, but T was disappointed 

 again. One egg was inpped and in 

 the place of the other lay a little 

 white ball, he had evidently not been 

 out of the shell more than two hours 

 though he seemed quite lively. Near 

 the nest lay the pieces of the shell 

 and parts of a young rabbit. While 

 I was at the nest both of the parent 

 birds flew to the rocks above the 

 nest where they sat snapping their 

 bills and occasionally flapping their 

 wings. After watching them for a 

 few minutes I withdrew and left the 

 family in peace. This evidently was 

 not the same pair that had owned 

 the first nest, but nothing could be 

 found of the birds or of a nest. 



During the winter of 1909-10 I no- 

 ticed that a male Western Horned 

 Owl had taken uji his home in a 

 large hole in a clay bank which was 

 usually used in the summer by Barn 

 Owls. 



March 24, 1910, I visited the place 

 hoping that the male had secured a 

 mate and would stay for the summer. 

 When I reached the bank I whistled 

 and an owl stuck her head out of the 

 hole. Just in front of the. bank was 

 a Cottonwood tree and by climbing 

 this I was able to see into the hole, 

 which was about ten feet from the 

 bottom of the bank; as I started to 

 climb the tree the owl left the nest 

 and a few minutes later I was able 

 to see into the nest which contained 

 four eggs. By securing the stump of 



