THE OOLOQIST 



139 



catchers were seen building a nest in 

 the peach tree knot hole. As I have 

 seen these birds rather excited at my 

 presence about the nest.I made no 

 notes, but a brood of Flycatchers were 

 raised • The cavity was nearly a foot 

 deep at this time. 



The following spring, 1916, Blue- 

 birds, Chickadees, Tufted Titmice and 

 a pair of Bewicks Wrens were continu- 

 ally quarreling over the knot hole. 

 These disputes began in Feb. before 

 the coming of the Crested Flycatcher 

 who again nested in the peach tree. 

 The English Sparrows were never in- 

 terested in the hole, perhaps because 

 it was too low down, making it easy to 

 break up the nest. This year the 

 Crested Fycatchers began nesting 

 about May 10th. On May 24th there 

 were six eggs in the nest. 1 did not 

 visit the nest often as it seemed to dis- 

 turb the birds, and I thought perhaps 

 they might desert the nest. At the 

 edge of the nest was placed the piece 

 of snake skin as is usual with this 

 bird. On visiting the nest on the 

 morning of June 2nd the eggs had 

 hatched. The male was quite noisy 

 and quite proud of his wife and fam- 

 ily. All went well until June 13th. 

 About noon that day I heard the Fly- 

 catcher making an unusually lot of 

 noise and deciding to investigate, ap- 

 proached the tree. The parent birds 

 flying excitingly about told me that 

 something was wrong. Glancing into 

 the nest 1 was startled to see a large 

 "Cowsnake" coiled in the cavity. I 

 soon had it out but the large lump in 

 its otherwise slender body and the 

 empty nest gave evidence of its guilt. 



About noon the same day I had oc- 

 casion to pass near the nest when 1 

 noticed one of the parent Flycatchers 

 fly up from the ground under the tree. 

 Coming nearer 1 found one of the 

 young Flycatchers in the weeds on 

 the ground. It was unhurt and evi- 



dently was being fed by its parents. I 

 put it into the cavity but it would not 

 stay. It was nearly ready to fly and 

 perhaps it came out all right as the 

 birds were noticed about the place for 

 several days 



One December day of 1916 on hear- 

 ing a pair of Blue Jays making a 

 great outcry in the orchard, what 

 should 1 find but a gray Screech Owl 

 in the peach tree cavity. At once I 

 had hopes of finding an Owls nest 

 there in the spring. But no bird nest- 

 ed in the peach tree cavity in the year 

 1917. The usual quarrel among the 

 Bluebirds, Titmice and Wrens took 

 place and the Flycatchers returned in 

 April but not again to nest there 

 where last year's offspring had met 

 fatal consequences. 



Passing the tree one June day of 

 that year (1917) I chanced to glance 

 in the old nesting cavity to find a 

 large "Cowsnake" which was treated 

 in the same unkind manner as the one 

 that had destroyed the Flycatchers. 



Now the peach tree is gone but its 

 reptile occupants will ever be matters 

 of interest and these notes will record 

 the happenings of the birds that oc- 

 cupied the old Indian peach tree. 



Ben J. Blincoe. 



WATCHING A HUMMINGBIRD 

 -i^EED HER YOUNG 



By R. A. Sell 



One of the pleasures of traveling is 

 making new friends; and this pleasure 

 is greatly enhanced on the second 

 trip by renewing friendships. To an 

 observer of birdlife, the native birds 

 are the old friends of the previous 

 trip. 



During the summer of 1915, the 

 writer became acquainted with the 

 hummingbirds of the botanical gar- 

 dens of the University of California. 

 More glib and graceful, more change- 

 able and elusive than the butterflies, 



