102 



THE OOLOGIST. 



trip he decided to try his luck at the 

 same place. So on April 12, '92 he did 

 so with the result that he secured four 

 sets of two, and one of thi-ee eggs, of 

 the Western Red-tail, and five sets of 

 theDesertSparrow Hawk. ]SI one however 

 from the nest I had so unsuccessfully 

 tried to climb too, as he did not go far- 

 enough along the side stream to reach 

 it. All the eggs he found on the main 

 stream below where I had been, and he 

 told me he might have secured still 

 more if he had not come to a part of the 

 stream fenced in, and containing a herd 

 of wild looking cattle that he did not 

 care to meet. 



On March 28, '93 we both started for 

 this place, but on buying our tickets 

 found that the train would not stop at 

 the desired station and we] would have 

 to get off at one about live miles this 

 side, and walk to it colllecting on the 

 way. We carried out this program ex- 

 cept that instead of walking directly 

 from one station to the other, we walk- 

 ■ ed south from the station, where we 

 left the train, until the stream was 

 reached, then up it to our usual station. 



Soon after reaching the stream we 

 found a large nest 60 feet up, near the 

 end of a sycamore limb, and a bird's 

 tail projecting ©ver the edge. She was 

 soon frightened off and seen to be a 

 Western Red-tail. Flying over she lit 

 on a lone sycamore in the field near by, 

 from which a good view of our move- 

 ments could be obtained. On climbing 

 to the nest H. found it to be lined with 

 dry grass, and to contain four very 

 large dirty-white eggs, so advanced in 

 incubation that later he found it very 

 difficult to blow them. After lowering 

 the eggs to me in a small canvas bag, 

 he was soon on the ground, and as I 

 had the entry made in my note book, 

 and the eggs packed, we started off for 

 lower down the stream to make 

 sure we would leave nothing behind us 

 before ascending it. 



Finding a large nest in the top of an 



immense sycamore H. climbed to it and 

 found a lot of broken egg shells. No 

 one had climbed the tree as there were 

 no scars on it, so they were either brok-' 

 en by birds or by some one shooting in- 

 to the nest. 



Retracing our steps we were making 

 our way up stream when I saw a nest 

 in the top of a sycamore which could 

 be seen over a hill around the base of 

 which the stream curved. We heard 

 some Hawks in a side cannon so I start- 

 ed to see if I could find their nest 

 while H. climbed to this one. After 

 walking over the hill I located the 

 Hawks and had hardly done so when 

 they sailed away and circled over the 

 tree H. was climbing, slhowing that 

 they were the owners of the nest. I 

 then examined the ti'ees in sight but 

 could find no nests, so going back over 

 the hill I called out to H. and asked 

 how many eggs there were. He an- 

 swered one, but on reaching him I 

 found the bag contained four very 

 large, unmarked eggs. He said that if 

 he had told me there were four I would 

 have hurried Dack without looking 

 carefully for other nests. 



We walked up stream some distance 

 before coming to the next nest. It was 

 70 feet up in a very large sycamore, the 

 highest of any, and was lined with dry 

 gi'ass and green sycamore leaves. The 

 three prettily marked eggs it contained 

 were soon packed away, and we were 

 off once more. One of these eggs is al- 

 most the exact counterpart of an egg 

 of the Imperial Eagle now in my col- 

 lection. 



Our next find was a nest in the top 

 of a slender sycamore which leaned 

 from the bank over the stream. After 

 a hard and shakey climb, we found it 

 to be lined with dry grass and feathers, 

 containing two nicely marked, fresh 

 eggs. Following iup the stream we 

 frightened an owl which disappeared 

 around a bend so suddenly we did not 

 see it well, but it was probably the 

 Long-eared. 



