THE OOLOGIST. 



215, 



eggs and myself had a hard time keep- 

 ing our places, the nest was a very poor- 

 ly arranged one and nearly flat, it was 

 composed of sticks lined with grass, 

 leaves and corn husks. The eggs which 

 were two in number were similar to the 

 last only smaller, by this time we were 

 a mile and a half from home, we walked 

 about a mile further without seeing any- 

 thing when I found a nest of the Red- 

 shouldered Hawk in a small maple tree 

 the nest was only £57 feet from the ground 

 and contained three dirty looiung eggs 

 with very little color in fact it could 

 hardly be called anything but ground 

 markings, these differed from the others 

 as they were quite well advanced in in- 

 cubation while the others were nearly 

 fresh. We got home about 7.30 pm, hav- 

 ing taken fourteen eggs thirteen first 

 class and one second class egg, which is 

 considered a very good haul around 

 here. 



J. E. Houseman, 



Aylmer Ont. 



A California Collecting Ground. 



I have read with pleasure the accounts 

 of collecting trips recorded in the Oolo- 

 GIST and, thinking that other of your 

 readers might be interested in such ar- 

 ticles, I have decided to give a descrip- 

 tion of my favorite collecting ground. 



The place spoken of is a canon about 

 three miles from town, among the nu- 

 merous foothills which surround the 

 valley. It is about four miles long and 

 altnough nowhere very steep, contains 

 many large boulders and rocks and at 

 places its sides are quite steep. The 

 trees are mostly button-wood, or syca- 

 more, with willow and Avater-mootic a- 

 long the bottom where there flows a 

 small dirty stream of water. There are 

 also a large number of sunflower bushes 

 in which a great many nests may be 

 found 



As the canon contains many points of 

 interest, interesting to one 1 who has 



collected there at least, we will enter at 

 the lower end and pass up the canon. 

 For the first half of a mile it is quite 

 broad and the ground is coverod with a. 

 thickgrowth of grass and clover. There 

 are no trees here with the exception of 

 willows, but the large sunflower bushes 

 furnish nesting places for the humming- 

 birds, the nests being placed among the. 

 dead leaA 7 es and therefore hard to find. 



Here too is an old stump surrounded 

 by sprouts where a Road-runner had 

 her nest last April. 



As we pass along, the sycamores grow 

 more abundant and here is the home of 

 the Arizona Hooded Oriole. Yes, here 

 is where Mr. Wilber and I took a beau- 

 tiful set of five. The nest was placed 

 eighteen feet from the ground among 

 the branches of a slender sycamore and 

 was composed of long, partially dried 

 grasses finely woven together, lined 

 with a small quantity of cotton. These 

 birds are quite common as also are the 

 Bullock's Oriole, both of which may be 

 seen with their gaudy coats gayly Sit- 

 ing from tree to tree uttering their loud 

 calls or scolding us as we pass. 



We now come to a good sized Doulder 

 with a large opening three feet from the. 

 ground. This is where I had taken 

 beautiful sets is '90 and '91 of the Canon 

 Wren and this year decided to catch the 

 bird. So I slipped up and quietly 

 brought my hand down over an empty 

 nest. I learned afterward that another 

 collector had gotten ahead of me. The 

 nest was placed on a twelve-inch plat- 

 form of small sticks and composed most- 

 ly of fur and feathers, forming as soft 

 and comfortable a bed for the "chicks" 

 as any I have examined. The bird, 

 which I saw in '91, was a very shy little 

 fellow with pure white breast and red- 

 dish back and under parts, spotted a- 

 bove with whitish dots. 



In a small side-canon is a lai'ge, white 

 stump which I once ascended to open up 

 what I supposed was a Flicker's dom- 

 ecile. On the way up I had the pleasure, 



