Tin-; xinioLOGisT. 



NOCTUHNAL DISTURBANCES- 



It must have been about twelve o'clock 

 at night, in the first week of April, when 

 I was awakened by a hissing and sputtering 

 noise that seemed to be in my bedroom. 



"Cats !" I exclaimed. How could cats 

 get into my room when I had shut the 

 door, and there was no way of entrance 

 except for them to slide down the chimney? 

 They were having lots of amusement, judg- 

 ing from the sounds I heard. 



I quietly slid out of bed and picked up a 

 boot and struck a match. As the light 

 blazed up, illuminating the room, there was 

 a scuffle and flapping of wings on the 

 balcony out by the window. Then I knew 

 what it all meant. It was a pair of Ameri- 

 can Barn Owls. 



The next night they were there again, 

 and kept me awake quite a while by their 

 queer sounds, which at times were hardly 

 distinguishable from the hissing of a cat. 

 There was an empty tea box on the balcony 

 into which I put some saw dust and a few 

 feathers. In a couple of days the owls had 

 the bottom lined with moles' fur, and had 

 brought a gopher and several field mice 

 into the box. Then the female laid an 

 egg (this was the 12th of April) and began 

 setting. 



The male bird brought mice and other 

 small animals for her to eat. Three days 

 afterward the second egg was laid; five 

 eggs in all, taking from the 12th to the 

 29th. 



During the daytime the male bird be- 

 took himself to some hollow tree 'till night, 

 when he would visit the nest and talk to 

 his mate in Owl language. I frequently 

 raised the window in the daytime to look 

 at the ne.st, and the female would fly off" 

 the eggs and alight in a thick cypress tree 

 and watch me. Then, if I went away, she 

 would come back in a few minutes. She 

 could see quite well in the daytime, as she 

 got to and fro from the nest as well a!^ a 

 diurnal bird could. Sometimes the small 

 birds would chase and tease her, but would 



never come near the nest. I have often 

 noticed owls flying in the daytime when 

 started from a thick evergreen or any 

 roosting place, and they have fairly good 

 use of their eyes in the daylight. 



At last I got tired of the screeching and 

 hissing and the dirt they made so decided 

 to break up the game. The five eggs were 

 added to my oological collection, and I 

 doubt if any other collector ever had owls 

 give him eggs before. 



Donald A. Cohen. 



Alameda, Cal. 



ONE WAY TO GET AN EGG. 



The editor of this paper and myself were 

 returning from a recent trip to the Gabilan 

 mountains, where we had been making 

 some observations on the California Condor, 

 within its very much prescribed habitat. 

 Guns, blankets and cooking utensils were 

 strung over the backs of our horses, and to 

 a casual observer we must have appeared 

 rather dilapidated as we approached the 

 little village of Paicinos about dusk. 



As we cantered along a Lewis' Wood- 

 pecker, startled by our approach, flew from 

 the fence by the road to a dead white oak 

 near by. My companion, looking wist- 

 fully at that tree, drew up his horse's head, 

 exclaiming, "Hold on a minute! if you 

 hold my horse I'll see if that Woodpecker 

 has a nest up there. " 



No sooner said than done. The enthu- 

 siastic nidiologist made straight for the 

 tree, climbed up and found the hole about 

 eighteen feet from the ground. 



The only implements at his disposal were 

 a pair of broken scissors and the rickety 

 blade of a broken knife; but he gouged 

 away a little of the rotten wood and easily 

 got his arm into the hole, but not being 

 able to reach the bottom, he tried the depth 

 by sounding the trunk. Much to his sur- 

 prise that cavit}' in the dead tree reached 

 down about four feet, so he endeavored to 

 cut through to the nest at that point. But 

 the wood seemed impossible to penetrate 



