THE OOLOGIST. 



93 



ering point on the evening of May 

 6th. 



At two minutes before seven, a 

 mammoth black funnel having an al- 

 most sinister appearance was observ- 

 ed hanging over the west chimney and 

 for seven minutes or until 7:05 the 

 funnel revolved, with its upper rim 

 high in the heavens and the point or 

 mouth pouring its living creatures in 

 a constant stream into the open chim- 

 ney. 



When the last of the birds disap- 

 peared and fully ten thousand little 

 lives were safely sheltered for the 

 night, one observing could not but 

 be impressed with the regular and 

 soldier-like precision with which the 

 whole feat was accomplished, a task 

 might well prove appalling to a hu- 

 man leader with 10,000' . human lives 

 in charge. 



Before the sun peeped up the next 

 morning the vast army struck camp 

 and continued on their northern jour- 

 ney, to break off in pairs and com- 

 panies as their old homes in the 

 northern cities and villages hove in 

 sight. Those observing were fortu- 

 nate for the impressive scene is sel- 

 dom seen more than once in a life 

 time. ISAAC B. HESS. 



The same phenomenon is noted at 

 the home of THE OOLOGI&ir at this 

 time (the last week in May) every 

 day; although not to so large an ex- 

 tent; the number of swallows going 

 into the school house chimney here 

 every evening being, according to my 

 best estimate, about five hundred. 

 They have been going in steadily now 

 every night for more than a week. 

 And what is strange, there are two 

 chimneys not over forty feet apart, 

 both of the same size, construction 

 and height. One is used as a down 

 draft ventilating shaft to supply cold 

 air; the other is used as an ordinary 

 chimney to provide draft for the soft 

 coal furnace. The one is clean and 

 neat; the other full of ordinary coal 

 soot. Th^ swallows, surprising as it 

 may seem, uniformly roost in the 

 chimney full of coal soot. — Editor. 



FROM CALIFORNIA. 



I thought your readers might like 

 to hear from the collecting trip that 1 

 and my brother made into the Cas- 



taic Canyon of Los Angeles County 

 this spring. We started out on Tues- 

 day and got to our Bee Camp about 

 6 o'clock that evening. The next af- 

 ternoon after having finished work- 

 ing with the bees we looked into some 

 old hawks' nests that were on some 

 cliffs nearby. Not finding any there, 

 while looking for nests on another 

 cliff my brother noticed some sticks 

 sticking out of a hole in the clift. 

 Climbing up, he found a nest there 

 and then proceeded to chip the edge 

 of the hole away with his knife un- 

 til he could pull the nest out. In the 

 nest were six eggs of the Rock V/rcn, 

 all partially incubated. We blew 

 these without much trouble and then 

 returned to camp. 



The next day we walked seven miles 

 up Fish Creek to an Owl's nest which 

 my brother had found the year before. 

 When we got to where the nest was, 

 we could see the Owl sitting on the 

 nest. We chopped down a small tree 

 and leaned it up against the cliff to 

 the nest. Then I shinned up. The 

 Owl sat on the nest and blinked her 

 eyes at me. I examined her careful- 

 ly and came to the conclusion that it 

 was a Spotted Owl because she was 

 marked with irregular splotches of 

 brown and white. I then pulled her 

 off the nest and found two eggs; one 

 slightly and the other more heavily 

 incubated. When I got down we dis- 

 covered the male sitting in a small 

 bush about fifteen feet from the nest. 

 He was lighter color than the female. 

 The female who had been sitting in 

 a tree nearby now flew down and sat 

 beside the male. Then she reached 

 over, put her bill in the feathers of 

 the male's neck, and ruffled them up, 

 and he did the same to her. They 

 acted like they were kissing each 

 other. 



My! but I wish I had a camera then. 

 While the two birds were sitting there 

 they both called several times. The 

 female's call sounded like a small 

 dog barking, and the male's like a 

 larger dog. 



The next day we str/'ted for home 

 and stopped for dinner about a mile 

 and a half west of Castaic station. 

 After dinner we went to a nest on a 

 cliff which we had found going up. 

 In this we found six incubated eggs 

 of American Raven. We blew these 



