70 



THE NIDIOLOGIST 



towering mountains which rose abruptly 

 at the west, the twitterings became more 

 and more frequent — a continuous melody 

 in fact, most pleasing to the ear; and num- 

 erous specks appeared circling far overhead 

 and then suddenly diving into the darkness 

 of the canons close at hand." For years 

 the birds (estimated at from 200 to 300) 

 had been in the habit of roosting and also 

 breeding in the narrow but far extending 

 crevices in the quarry, leaving before day- 

 light for the neighboring mountains which 

 afford them a feeding ground. Beginning 

 to return to the quarry early in the after- 

 noon the numbers increased until almost 

 twilight, when, as a quarryman stated, 

 "often a mass as large as a man's leg were 

 fighting at the entrance trying to gain a 

 foothold in the favored crevices," from 

 which came the chirpings and scoldings of 

 those already within. They are one of the 

 most difficult of birds to shoot. At the 

 time (the last of March; they were probably 

 breeding but the clefts selected were so nar- 

 row ana deep that it was impossible to find 

 a nest. They would remain in the crevices 

 while blasts were being fired, but recently 

 a heavy shot shattered the cliff and 135 

 dead birds were picked up by one man, the 

 debris still holding many of their bodies. 



" Bubo Notes" by F. I. Atherton, were 

 read. A nest of W. Horned Owls was 

 found March 4, 1892 in Stanislaus county, 

 containing two eggs, incubation commenced. 

 The ne.st was in the top of a white oak 

 tree, the .scanty twigs affording but slight 

 protection from the burning rays of the 

 sun. It was ob.served that when this Owl 

 was heard hooting at noonday the location 

 was in some dark ravine or densely wooded 

 spot, and always in cloudy weather. The 

 hooting is uttered in variable pitches by 

 different Owls, but there is apparently no 

 perceptible variation in the pitch of the 

 voice of an individual bird. Mr. Taylor 

 presented .several notes on "Bird Casual- 

 ties." 



In one noted at Palo Alto, Cal., by Wil- 

 fred II. Osgood, a female House Finch, 

 {Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis) was found 

 dead, suspended from an Oriole's nest by a 

 single horse-hair, which was caught around 

 its neck in a "half hitch." The bird was 

 evidently in search of nesting material and 

 in pulling the hair fnjm the old Oriole's 

 nest had got caught in it with fatal results. 



H. R. Taylor records a Barn Owl, {Strix 



pranticola) which he was obliged to leave 

 in its death struggles. It was in the ex- 

 treme top of a large live oak with its feet 

 caught in the small twigs so securely that 

 in spite of frantic efforts it could not get 

 away. Writing from Fort Jones, Siskiyou 

 county, to the editor of the Nid., Mr. R.C. 

 McGregor says: " I send you by mail to- 

 day a curio I found last Monday-. The 

 bunch of wool was caught in the fork of a 

 small willow and evidently the Goldfinch 

 became entangled while attempting to take 

 specimens for his collection. The poor 

 little fellow was hanging by one foot, dry 

 and shrivelled as you see him." Walter 

 E. Bryant contributes to this list of birds' 

 accidents, an instance of an English Spar- 

 row being caught securely by a horse-hair, 

 hanging from the roof of a house in Oak- 

 land, Cal. Recently D. A. Cohen found a 

 Red-shafted Flicker that had descended the 

 chimney into an attic and there starved to 

 death. Also while hunting quail, three 

 were scared from a dense tree, one dropping 

 before the gun, the second escaping, while 

 the third, a female, flew with terrific force 

 against the side of a farm house forty yards 

 distant, and died soon after. Mr. Cohen 

 read a paper on "Some Queer Nests and 

 Nesting Sites. " 



June 1894. In a cave on Mt. Diablo, 

 Cal., I obtained a nest and six eggs of the 

 Canon (?) Wren, which was built on a 

 raised tier of four or five Cliff Swallows' 

 nest.?. Near by there was a large, smooth, 

 perpendicular rock with a number of Cliff 

 Swallows' nests on its side. They were 

 out of reach so we threw stones and broke 

 a nest and were surprised to find fresh eggs 

 of the House Finch in the debris. Sev- 

 eral more nests were found to be also occu- 

 pied by House Finches, only one containing 

 Swallow 's eggs. 



1884. A nest of the Spurred Towhee, 

 ten feet from the ground, which, in addition 

 to a set of eggs, contained .six eggs of the 

 Valley Partridge. 



1892. An old nest of the California 

 Towhee, seven feet from the ground in a 

 patch of wild blackberries, contained the 

 chi])i)ed shells of the Valley Partrigde, 

 showing that the brood had been hatched. 

 Other curious nesting places of this Par- 

 tridge will be de.scribed in a coming number. 



California Mottled Owls and Parkman's 

 Wrens have nested annually for years in 

 Red-shafted P'lickers' excavations in two 



