The Oologist. 



Vol. XXIII. No. 5. 



Albion, N. Y., May, 1906. 



Whole No. 226 



THE OOLOGIST, 



A Monthly Publication Devoted to 

 OOLOGY, ORNITHOLOGY AND TAXI- 

 DERMY. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Publisher, 



ALBION, N. Y. 



ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 



student of Birds, their Nests and Eggs, solicited 



from all. 



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ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager, 

 Chili, Monroe Co.. N. Y. 



Among the Hills of California. 

 By HARRY H. DUNN. 



I sit by the cheery grate this cool 

 October evening, Davie's "Nests and 

 Eggs," Reed's "Eggs of North Ameri- 

 can Birds," and Ridgeway's beloved 

 "Manual" on the table; the time sea- 



soned briar in my mouth and across 

 my knees that rare and dear old vol- 

 ume that Dr. Cooper wrote more than 

 thirty years ago— "The Land Birds of 

 California." 



And, one by one with the pages of 

 the book, the leaves of memory glide 

 past, a retrospective vision. Once 

 more I am living on the rim of hills 

 that swings in a semicircle about my 

 old Southern California home. It is 

 morning in May— morning with a glint 

 of silver around the golden edges of 

 the new-born day. I slip away over 

 the hills while mother and father are ' 

 yet asleep— clad in corduroys and a 

 denim shirt — a warm garb but service- 

 able in the underbrush and on the 

 sides of rough-barked oaks and scy- 

 amores. At my heels trailed Schneider 

 —a squat, little dog of no pedigree, 

 but undoubted bravery and skill as a 

 squirrel catcher— peace be to his 

 ashes, he died a few months ago. 



Directly back of the house lay a 

 sloping stretch of natural springs of 

 crude oil. The liquid from these 

 mingled with the dust and earth of the 

 hillside until it had former a crust 

 through which, at rare intervals, a 

 clump of California laurel had grown. 

 No carpet of grass covered this bar- 

 ren place, and over it at eventide the 

 nighthawks flew by dozens. Often, 

 in seasons previous, had I searched 

 for their nests unsuccessfully, but this 

 morning, moving slowly through a 

 clump of laurel, thinking of a certain 

 sycamore flat toward which I was 

 headed, I almost steped on Mrs. Night- 

 hawk covering her two eggs amid 

 the dead and fallen leaves of last year. 



