88 



THE 00L0G1ST. 



down beneath the branches and fly 

 noiselessly away. The nest was in a 

 white oak forty feet up. . and rewarded 

 me with a set of two eggs in .which the 

 incubation was far advanced. The nest 

 was within two hundred and fifty yards 

 of alio as i, which may account for the 

 snyness of the birds. 



Sets four and live of two slightly in- 

 cubated eggs each were taken on March 

 1st. .Moth sets were deposited in old 

 hawk's nests from which I got eggs of 

 Buteo borealis in 1891, and were respec- 

 tively sixty-five and thirty feet from l he 

 ground. Set four was in a bass-wood 

 tree. In this case the owl did not leave 

 the nest when I pounded vigorously on 

 the trunk, and only did so when I was 

 about half-way up the tree. Some boys 

 had reported seeiugthe owl on this nest 

 two or three days before; otherwise the 

 set would probably have been lost, for 

 the tree was not of the kind that one is 

 apt to climb out of mere curiosity. In 

 the case of set rive I could see the tail of 

 the owl projecting over the edge of the 

 nest, which was in a willow, and a small 

 stick thrown in that direction was suffi- 

 cient to flush her. Set six of two slight- 

 ly incubated eggs was found on March 

 19, in the same nest and under the same 

 circumstances as set two. The presump- 

 tion seems to be that the same bird laid 

 them. 



Tnis much for the sets I got, now as 

 to those I know I didn't get. 



On Feb. 6, I found myself looking in- 

 tently at a dead oak tree which had a 

 hole iu it about forty feet from the 

 ground. Rapping on the tree produced 

 no results, and, as the hole looked very 

 small anyway, I left it. A friend, whom 

 I will call Brown, informed me a few 

 weeks later that there were three young 

 owls in tha' tree. 



The second case was one of even 

 greater chagrin to me. I had repeated- 

 ly passed under an old Crow's nes^ 

 twenty feet up in a small red oak, and 

 tue idea had occurred to me that a 



Coopers Hawk might appropriate it later 

 in the season. It never presented the least 

 appearance of being occupied until one 

 day in April I saw a pair of young Owls 

 almost as large as Pigeons sitting on it 

 and looking wonderiugly at me The 

 nest was small even for a Crow's, and 

 was situated among rather thick second 

 growth timber. It must have been that 

 the old bird flew away out of sight every 

 time anyone approached. As this nest 

 was in the same timber as nest three, 

 and only a short distance from it, I am 

 inclined to think that the same wise old 

 Bubo lid finally succeed in outwitting 

 me. 



From my experiences with the Gt. 

 Horned Owl in 1892, I have certainly 

 learned never to take No for an answer 

 from any old nest or hollow trees until 

 all the pros and cons have been diligent- 

 ly investigated. As we are now at the 

 beginning of the collecting season, I am 

 in hopes that these notes will be of use 

 to some who are expecting to study the 

 interesting Bubo virginianus in 1893. 

 Chas. R. Keyes, 

 Mt. Vernon, Iowa. 



An Albatross at Long Beach, Cala. 



On the 26th of July I discovered a 

 specimen of the Short-tailed Albatross 

 which was washed up on the beach 

 near Long Beach, Cala. in San Pedro 

 Bay. 



I succeeded in skinning itand found 

 it to measure 7 ft. 8 in. from tip to tip. 



I was told by a young man, that 

 three years ago, in the winter and dur- 

 ing a storm a dozen of these birds were 

 washed up on the beach in a length of 

 about ten miles, but since then very 

 few have occurred. 



This may however have been some 

 other bird as the person who told me 

 is not "well up" in Ornithology. 



Sometime about 1880 I assisted in 

 capturing a young specimen of the 

 Sooty Albatross on ihe coast several 

 miles below here. We succeeded in 

 partially domesticating him and dubed 

 him "Peter The Great " Sad to say he 

 did <not long survive his capture. 



I would like to hear from anyone 

 who is familiar with any of the species 

 of Albatross. M' L, Weeks, 



Los Angeles. Cal. 



