THE OOLOGIST. 



71 



fertile and is the most heavily marked 

 egg of the set. The other three con- 

 tained small embryoes. The date was 

 March 28th, and this was the first 

 set of that year. This set of eggs 

 measure respectively: 63x47.5; 61x47; 

 61x46. These measurements are in 

 millimeters and the first is the infertile 

 egg. Compared with the average of 

 several sets of three eggs of the Eastern 

 form of the Red-tail (62x49; 62x48; 

 64x49 mm.) they seem to be smaller, 

 yet this is a set of noticeably large 

 eggs as compared with about twenty 

 other sets now in my collection, and 

 collected by myself in the past two 

 years. Four sets of Krider's Hawk, 

 collected in Iowa, Texas, and Colorado 

 seem to average smaller even than 

 sets of the Western Red tail, and are 

 not marked so well either, though the 

 Eastern Red-tail is far ahead of our 

 form in matter of markings. Several 

 sets of two eggs of the Western species 

 which I now have are either entirely un- 

 marked or else one egg has a very 

 few faint dashes of rufous. 



Harlan's Hawk has been taken here 

 in the winter and not more than a year 

 ago a pair were mounted by a Los 

 Angeles Taxidermist, so I am constant- 

 ly on the look out for them. Any one 

 who has collected eggs of this bird and 

 will favor me with good description or 

 other notes will do me a favor for 

 which I will pay either cash or speci- 

 mens and I am sure such an article 

 would be read with interest by collec- 

 tors who suscribe — as who does not? — 

 to the OOLOGIST. 



If robbed, our Red-tail will almost 

 immediately commence a new nest for 

 the reception of a second set, but will 

 usually occupy the old nest the next 

 year, seeming to become strongly at- 

 tached to her home. In markings the 

 sets of one pair of birds, or of the fe- 

 male, if the male be shot, persist in the 

 same type, but not always in the same 

 distinctness of coloration. One nest 



of this bird at least was "unavailable" 

 to me this season, though I haven't 

 given up trying for it yet. It is in a 

 sycamore just beside the road and fully 

 seventy feet from the ground. About 

 fifteen feet below it in the same tree is 

 an old nest of the Hawk now occupied 

 by a Pacific Horned Owl, which I sup- 

 pose, has hatched hfr clutch by this 

 time. 



Harry H Dunn, 

 April 10, 1901. Fullerton, Calif. 



Gleanings from My Note Book. 



[Continued.) 



May came in bright and clear, but 

 cold, bringing a few King birds, and an 

 Oriole whom I heard chattering but not 

 singing at all. The cold wave reached 

 its climax on the night of the 5th, when 

 a freeze caused the drizzling rain to 

 sheathe the grass and every shrub with 

 fantastic icy forms which sent forth 

 brilliant scintillations as "old Sol" came 

 smiling up over the eastern hills the 

 next morning. Even the set of Red- 

 tailed Hawk that I collected at sunrise 

 were covered with frost, for it seems 

 that when I flushed the female from her 

 nest several evenings ago, she never 

 came back, so I had to be satisfied with 

 two plain eggs. 



I have noticed many times that neith- 

 er the Red-tailed nor Red-shouldered 

 Hawk will return to their nest when 

 flushed from them after dark, even 

 when incubation was well along as it 

 was in this set. 



As I left the woods I heard the clear, 

 sweet warble of a Ruby-crowned King- 

 let and soon I found him making his 

 toilet as he sat on the sunny side of a 

 pine tree on a dead branch. 



No sooner had the cold snap passed 

 away than arrived on the 6th, a great 

 wave of migrants, and every moist 

 woodland, whether on hill or in vale, 

 resounded with melody far sweeter 

 than words can describe. Yet from 



