56 



THE OOLOGIST 



tore was not to be found here. I had 

 given up ever seeing one here, dead or 

 alive. Several years ago in June, a 

 time of the year when I never would 

 have expected to see it here, I cams 

 across one suddenly. It was on old 

 bird in full dress. The colors, marking 

 and even the cry were all there. The 

 bird was in very easy range but I had 

 no artillery along. 



It was along the river near a steep 

 hill with rocky and timbered side. T 

 was down next day with a' gun, also 

 afterwards, but never saw it again. 



I wanted to get an extra large wild- 

 cat (Bat Lynx) for my collection. The 

 wildcat carries no load of fat as does 

 the raccoon and many other mammals, 

 but is always lean and lanky in a wild 

 state and I soon found that 40 and 50 

 pound cats, like many other birds and 

 mammals whose weight we read about, 

 existed only in newspaper accounv.s 

 and stories told by people who bad 

 guessed not actually weighed tlie 

 game. I did know of a monster and 

 with others tried to get him ahead of 

 the dogs for several seasons but m; 

 success. He went too far and circLjd 

 all over a couple townships througli 

 all the worst jungles and sla'shings he 

 could find. Another season I put c ul 

 a trap for cats near his haunts bul 

 hardly hoped to land this particular 

 old fellow, yet the very first thing to 

 get in was this big cat He took th:^ 

 trap and a heavy clog up into a' n em- 

 lock tree and when I looked up, there 

 was the beast I had been after for +!'.e 

 past two seasons. This was a very 

 large old male, about as large as they 

 get. He was in fine fur with fine ruIT,3 

 on the sides of his head. He measured 

 45 inches from tip of nose to tip of 

 tail. Tail 6 inches. His footpads left 

 a track 3 x 2i/^ inches. Nearly large 

 enough for a Canada' lynx. He 

 weighed 33i/4 pounds on a grocer's 

 scale. 



The nests of the American Goshawk 

 (same birds in each case), which I 

 found here and accounts of which were 

 given to "The Oologist" at the time 

 was due entirely to the unexpected 

 discovery of the first nest a month be- 

 fore the eggs were laid and at a' time 

 when I was not looking for nests of 

 any kind at all. 



R. B. Simpson. 



BIRDS OF A CALIFORNIA SNOW 

 STORM 



On January 29th, during a heavy 

 snow storm 1 took a little walk into 

 the hills back of town to see what the 

 birds were doing. Never before, or at 

 least not for very many years, had 

 Benicia experienced such a fall of 

 snow, for as old Si White says, he 

 had "never seen the like of it" during 

 the forty-tliree years he has spent in 

 this town. During ordinary winters 

 the only glimpse of snow we get in 

 this section of California is once or 

 twice a year when Mt. Diablo, some 

 twenty miles away, wears a white cap 

 of ephemeral existence. 



My first observation of bird life on 

 this date is a scattered flock of Ameri 

 can Pipit along the sidewalk on the 

 paved highway. They are searching 

 food in a few places free from snow 

 beneath the trees and allow close ap- 

 proach, sometimes walking or running 

 to one side instead of making use of 

 their wings. 



Among a few bushes along a fence, 

 1 find a flock of Gambel Sparrows 

 with a few Golden-crowned among 

 them. A number of Red-shafted Flick- 

 ers are flying about between the trees. 

 Some of our Flickers are prepared for 

 weather such as this as certain indi- 

 viduals have dug holes in the sides of 

 some of our buildings in which they 

 roost during the night. The smaller 

 ground-roosting birds will have diffi- 

 culty locating shelter when night falls 



