88 The Wilson Bulletin.— No. 44. 



While there 'appeared no way to reach the nest from below, 

 it was possible to scramble to the top of the blufif above the 

 nest. Arrived at the top, a rope, a loose fence post and a con- 

 veniently placed prairie-dog hole furnished the desired com- 

 bination. The first descent proved fruitless as far as the nest 

 Vv'as concerned, but embarrassingly fruitful in the amount of 

 "dobe" carried to the bottom of the cliff. The dry wall of 

 dirt crumbled at the touch into dust as fine as flour, or rat- 

 tled down in chunks at a vigorous blow. 



The second descent was successful in locating the nest on a 

 shelf about six feet wide and four feet deep, sloping slightly 

 down toward the edge — rather insecure footing on that 

 crumbling soil, but making the use of the camera possible. 



There were two young in the nest. After a snap at them in 

 the defensive attitude which they immediately assumed, back- 

 ing up against the adobe wall, I attempted to move them into 

 a better light, but one of them chose to flutter down from the 

 protecting ledge. I followed and had him at my mercy. His 

 picture shows how he felt about it, and how his evident temper 

 impressed the caniera. W^e left the young bird at the foot of 

 the bluff, feeling certain that the parents would find it. 



The next day we returned and carried the other youngster 

 home in a bag, and made a pet of him. He seemed to thrive 

 on shreds of tough old rooster, which he refused to help him- 

 self to. At first I placed it in his mouth, but in the end found 

 that the most expeditous way was to take hold of the bird's 

 head, force open his bill, and poke the food down his throat. 

 As he could swallow pieces of the roostes's neck an inch long, 

 his digestion must have been good. 



The bird stood about twelve inches high. The body plum- 

 age appeared to be mostly down — soft, fluffy and thick — but 

 the wing and tail feathers were about half out of their sheaths. 

 Ordinarily the ear tufts projected about half an inch, but some- 

 times fully three-quarters of an inch. The feet and legs were 

 thickly covered with a yelowish or light buffy down. 



The whole of the body down was barred, below as well as 

 above, like the adult plumage. The body was light yellowish 

 brown, gray tipped. The wing coverts were brownish yellow, 

 with very dark bars fully a quarter of an inch wide. The pri- 

 maries, secondaries and tail feathers were as dark as the bars 



