THE OOLOGIST. 



117 



habitants, its varied excitements and 

 glad surprises, is the more interesting 

 of the two. 



Of course it is exciting to poke your 

 nose into the nest of some rare bird 

 when you are looking after another 

 thing, or after searching hopelessly, to 

 come suddenly upon some rare find ! 



I have in mind a very pleasant trip 

 that I took in the spring of 189 L. 



It was .-hortly after the middle of 

 May that my friend Will Lawrence pro- 

 posed a few days collecting trip. 



We started from his home near Los 

 Gatos early on one of those mornings 

 that only Californian's can know. The 

 sky was faultless, the only opeck to be 

 seen was an eagle soaring high above 

 us, the whole bright scene of softly roll- 

 ing emerald hills with here and there a 

 blush of crimson blossoms or a crown of 

 golden poppies, smiled in the bright 

 sunshine aud the birds all tried to out- 

 do each other iu singing the welcome 

 to the glorious day. 



About a month before we had passed 

 over the same road on our way to a mag- 

 pie roost where we got some fine speci- 

 mens. 1 noticed many very familiar ob- 

 jects on our way. Here was a tall syca- 

 more with a W. Red-tailed Hawk' snest 

 in the top from which we had taken a fine 

 set of eggs . It was now deserted. In 

 another tree was a hole from which had 

 been taken a set of Sparrow Hawk's eggs 

 and there the bridge where the Phoebe's 

 nest was. We had now gone about ten 

 miles and as we reached the crest of a 

 hill we let our horse stop to rest and 

 looked across the valley to see the white 

 dome of Lick Observatory shining from 

 its place on Mt. Hamilton. 



On the other side of the hill our road 

 followed the Llagas creek for a few 

 miles, then we crossed the stream and 

 after an hours drive came to our first 

 stopping place. We hitched our animal 

 to a tree and wheeled the cart into the 

 shade. 



Our first piece of work was to visit a 



bridge a hundred yards back on the 

 road. A tiny streamlet ran along a 

 rocky bed and as it reached the bridge 

 had a fall of about 20 feet. The body of 

 the bridge was on a level with the upper 

 portion of the stream aud underneath 

 it was dark and cool. As we climbed 

 down and under a sudden whirr of 

 wings startled us, but we soon recover- 

 ed, and what was our delight! There on 

 a shelf of the rock, in a kind of corner 

 where the; mist and spray of the water- 

 fall kept it always green was an oblong 

 ball of moss and in the side a smooth 

 round hole. We have all beard of the 

 Water Ouzels' nest but there's nothing 

 like seeing one. "A thing ot beauty is a 

 joy forever" said I as I waited to see 

 Will draw four white beauties from the 

 nest — but the young ouzel he pulled out 

 was such a beauty (V) that we left him 

 to be a "joy forever" to his mother. 



We left the bridge and soon struck 

 the main stream which we followed up 

 for quite a distance. As we went along 

 we came upon a fiat shelving rock that 

 hung over the water and from under 

 which a Biack Phoebe fiew. We soon 

 discovered the nest which Will got by 

 lying fiat on the edge of the rock and 

 reaching under while I held his heels. 



The nest was the usual oue of mud 

 and rootlets and contained 5 of the 

 prettiest eggs I ever saw of that species. 

 They were very large and of a transpar- 

 ent creamy white with a few minute 

 blood red specks scattered over them. 

 During the day we found another nest 

 of that species among the tangled roots 

 of an upturned tree. 



As we made our way up, the canon 

 became narrower and large alder trees 

 lined the sides of the stream. About 

 the bases aud among the lower limbs of 

 these trees were masses of debris that 

 had been brought down by the recent 

 freshets. It was there that we found 

 the Western Flycatcher nesting. It 

 usually builds its nest from 1 ft. to 8 ft. 

 from the ground. We took several sets 



