259 



THE OOLOGIST 



Western Blue Birds 



-Photo by Earl R. Forrest 



pairs, and never were there more than 

 three or four drinking at one time, al- 

 though during the busy hours there 

 would be several sitting in the trees 

 awaiting their turn. Then with a great 

 chatter and fuss a Gila Woodpecker 

 would swoop down and take complete 

 possession. At first the jays were shy 

 when the woodpecker arrived, for the 

 latter seemed so bold and dashing, 

 but the jays soon became used to this 

 and stood up for their rights. 



All morning there would be a few 

 bluebirds or finches about, but when- 

 ever a jay or woodpecker would make 

 its appearance the smaller birds would 

 hastily retreat. 



The afternoons were generally 

 quiet, and hardly any birds would be 

 about. At this time a Western Mock- 

 ingbird would sometimes appear. This 

 species was very shy, however, and 

 things had to be pretty quiet or they 



would not come near. These observa- 

 tions were made from November 29th, 

 1903 to December 20th, 1903, after 

 which I left the locality. If I had been 

 able to visit the place in the spring 

 I have no doubt but that many more 

 species would have been recorded, but 

 by that time I was in the northern 

 part of the territory. 



Both my friend and myself were in- 

 terested in photography, and so we de- 

 cided to try to obtain some pictures 

 of our feathered friends. We both 

 owned cameras of the long focus, 

 cycle style, and 4 by 5 inches in size, 

 fitted with ordinary symmetrical 

 lenses, which had a speed of F. 8. Of 

 course all work must be instantane- 

 ous, but the light is stronger and more 

 intense in the southwest than in the 

 east, and so we were able to obtain 

 pretty good results. 



The fountain was too high for an 



