THE OOLOGIS'J' 



103 



la one place the stream is quite deep 

 and narrow as. it flows between the 

 rock}' sides of tlie ravine. I was walking 

 in front stepping from boulder to bould- 

 er and carrying the climbers, while H. 

 carried the egg basket. Taking a step 

 forwarti I paused, when H. thinking 

 I would keep on, started to place his 

 foot on the same boulder I was stand- 

 ing on. There was not room. He dis- 

 covered it too late and not beinfi^ able to 

 regain his balance, took an unintention- 

 al seat, partly in the water and partly 

 on a boulder, holding the basket of 

 eggs above him. None were broken,- 

 and he was sgon on his feet again, not 

 very wet. 



Close to this place is a small water 

 fall, so standing on the edge of the 

 pool it makes, we enjoyed the cooling 

 ■effect of the mist floating over us. 

 About a mile further up we reached the 

 side ravine and following it up came to 

 the nest I had tried to climb to in '92. 

 The Hawk flew oft" and joining its mate 

 •circled overhead. All the nests which 

 we found during the day had the birds 

 on except one. This one was where 

 we secured the second set of four. The 

 ■cloudy day may have caused them to 

 remain at home. In all but one case 

 the bird on being distui'bed circled 

 overhead. The exception was where 

 we found the first set of four when the 

 l)ird perched near by. The set was 

 more badly incubated than the others 

 :and I think the bird had grown more 

 ■sluggish from setting longer so did not 

 circle around. 



But to come back again to our last 

 nest 65 or 70 feet up in a sycamore over 

 a small stream. H. was soon up to it 

 and lowered me the three eggs. They 

 had a greenish tinge on the outside of 

 the shell adding much to their appear- 

 ■ance. It faded greatly after blowing 

 and may possibly have been caused by 

 the green oak leaves with which the 

 nest was lined. In shape, texture of 

 the shells, and Ijack of markings, they 



greatly resemble a set of the European 

 Buzzard now in my collection. Add- 

 ing these Hawk's eggs to the ones al- 

 ready in the basket we now had sixteen 

 all of the Western Red-tail and walk- 

 ing over to the station we took the 

 tx-ain back to Los Angeles, very tired 

 but pleased with our success. 



In'94 we were unable to visit this col- 

 lecting ground, but on March 27, '95 we 

 did so, getting off at one station and 

 walking to the other the same as before 

 except that we reached the stream 

 higher up the second time. We were 

 approaching the stream when I saw a 

 nest on the slender limb of a sycamore 

 in a side canon. In crossing the 

 main stream to go to it, H. looked up 

 and saw another nest in the same place 

 where we found the second set of four 

 eggs in '93. Not much time being lost 

 in getting up to it we found it deserted, 

 overgrown with barley, composed of 

 sticks, rubbish, a dead rat, and con- 

 tained two eggs of the Western Horned 

 Owl. One of the eggs had a very small 

 puncture through the side of the shell 

 but not thx'ough the inside skin, so the 

 egg did not grow stale. The other had 

 two punctures, was stale, and had been 

 almost entirely eaten out by white 

 worms. The day had been cloudy and 

 a. little rain had fallen, but now the rain 

 came down in earnest and kept it up 

 without an intermission for the remain- 

 der of the day and part of the night. 



The other nest about 65 feet over a 

 stream, now drew our attention, and 

 as the Red-tail flew off our doubts 

 about trying to climb to it vanished. 

 Half way up against the tree trunk was 

 an old Owl's nest. H. found it no easy 

 matter to take the single egg from its 

 bed of fiberous bark and green syca- 

 more leaves for the small limb swayed 

 under his weight, the birds circling 

 overhead as he did so uttering their 

 cry of alarm as usual. On blowing 

 this egg which is now in my collection, 

 it was found to contain a small embryo, 



