142 



THE OOLOQI8T 



Dr. Grinnell tells me that the Hum- 

 mingbirds are increasing about the 

 University campus but that for some 

 reason or other, they are much more 

 in evidence during the early spring 

 than they are at this time of the year 

 when the California hillsides are 

 clothed in brown. Like the butterflies, 

 the Hummingbirds seem to come and 

 go with the flowers. 



TWO MAY DAYS 



On looking over my note books re- 

 cently I came across notes taken on 

 two well remembered days in late 

 May, 26th and 28th, a' few seasons 

 back. The Warblers had just about 

 finished nest building and were be- 

 ginning to lay and I had two pleasant 

 and interesting days with them. The 

 first day I spent on the wooded ridges 

 that divide the river valley from a 

 large mountain streatn a few miles 

 north of town. Birds were plentiful 

 although I didn't find many nests this 

 day. My first find of interest was a 

 Magnolia Warblers nest containing 

 one egg. It was on the limb of a 

 little hemlock and was ten feet from 

 the ground. I found a Vireo's nest 

 with one egg and as it was early for 

 Red Eyes to be nesting this may have 

 been a Solitaries. The next time I 

 went that way, however, I found this 

 nest to have been robbed so I am not 

 sure which it was. Along the sides of 

 a ravine I saw a small bird with nest- 

 ing material in its bill, fly up into a 

 little fork of a limb of a tall tree. Af- 

 ter a little trouble I got near enough 

 to the bird on the ground to find it 

 wa's a Redstart. I was surprised at 

 this find as it was fully 70 feet up to 

 the nest and as a rule I seldom find 

 one over 20' feet up. 10 to 15 feet is 

 the average here and I have seen 

 nests not over two feet up. Down this 

 hollow where there was penty of hem- 

 lock I found a Magnolia nest out on a 



long limb of hemlock. Climbing a 

 small tree I pulled the limbs over and 

 found the nest to contain five eggs. 

 Sets of five here are rare and I have 

 only found several out of a great many 

 nests examined. I saw a nest saddled 

 on the limb of a tree. I climbed up 

 and the female never left the nest un- 

 til I reached the limb on which it had 

 been built. I was within seven feet of 

 her before she left and was surely 

 pleased to find her to be a Black- 

 burniati Warbler. The nest was 25 

 feet from the ground and seven feet 

 from the trunk on a horizontal limb. 

 The limb was two inches thick where 

 the nest was saddled and it was fas- 

 tened also to a couple of little sprigs 

 that grew out at that spot. It held a 

 fine set of four, and while I was gett- 

 ing them, the female stayed very close 

 but the male did not appear at all. 

 During the day, I occasionally heard 

 Male Blackburnians singing high up 

 but they usually nest high and I con- 

 sidered myself in luck to find this one 

 so low. 



Birds, especially Warblers were 

 plentiful and quite a few migrants 

 were still about, especially Black-poll 

 and Bay-breasted Warblers. The next 

 day was cloudy and threatening and 

 the woods were rather wet from rains 

 the night before. I went to a different 

 locality this day going up the Tiouesta 

 Creek on the narrow gauge that hauls 

 logs from the big woods around its 

 waters. My objective was a piece of 

 timber this side of the main track. 

 There was much hemlock in the track 

 and considerable underbrush. In 

 many places large patches of low 

 thick hemlock brush. Along the creek 

 itself is quite a swamp. 1 intend to 

 look it over a little but the day was 

 too cloudy, and damp to wallow around 

 in the cold water so I stayed out. I 

 heard Northern Water Thrushes sing- 

 ing, also saw two Black Mallards fly- 



