88 THE NIDOLOGIST 
Cooper Ornithological Club. 
¢ | ‘HE Southern Division met at Highland 
Park January 27. The receipt of four 
documents from the Department otf 
Agriculture was reported. The meeting was 
devoted to discussing a plan of Club work, a 
committee being appointed to report at the fol- 
lowing meeting. 
The Northern Division met at Berkeley, at 
the residenceof Rev. E. L. Hood, February 1. 
Messrs. H. S. Groves, N. M. Moran, S. W. Geis, 
and H. M.Anthony were present as visitors. The 
usual committees were appointed by the presi- 
dent, as follows: On Publication, Messrs. Beck 
and Barlow, and on Meetings, Messrs. Osgood, 
Cohen, and Koch. A paper on Nuttall’s and 
Gairdner’s Woodpeckers, by H. W. Carriger, 
was read, being in substance as follows: “ Both 
species are alike in habits, frequenting the deep 
woods, edge of forests, and open country with- 
out favor. Both nest alike—always in a freshly 
dug cavity in a decayed part of the tree. The 
favorite nesting sites are along the creeks both 
in valley and hills, but usually in the foot-hill 
region. The entrance to Nuttall’s is larger 
than Gairdner’s, the former being 14 to 2 inches 
in diameter, while the latter ranges from 1 to 1} 
inches. A nest of Nuttall’s was taken from a 
willow stub only two and one half feet up, and 
another fully sixty feet up in an alder. A nest 
of Gairdner’s was not over six feet up, and 
others fully forty feet. Vhe freshly dug chips 
are usually a reliable index to the location of 
the nests of both species, fully two thirds of the 
nests found having fresh chips beneath them. 
[The males of both species were observed exca- 
vating the nesting cavities, and Mr. Carriger in- 
clines to the belief that they nearly always pre- 
pare the nest.| The males have been caught on 
the nest, showing that they assist at incubation. 
Before incubation commences Nuttall’s will 
usually leave the cavity upon the approach of 
a person to the tree, but after incubation is 
begun they will usually remain on the eggs 
until removed by hand. Gairdner’s, as a rule, 
will leave its nest at all times when disturbed. 
“ The number of eggs laid by Nuttall’s is from 
three to five, usually four, and with Gairdner’s 
it is five or six. Several runt eggs of each 
species were found. If unmolested the same 
tree is returned to year after year, though each 
season a new cavity is made. One tree ob- 
served had four nests in a single limb. Fresh 
eggs of both species may be taken from the 
latter part of April until the last of May.” 
Henry B. Kaeding presented a few interest- 
ing records secured in Amador County recently, 
as follows: “On December 1, 1895, was taken 
a specimen of California Pygmy Owl, the bird 
being shot in the middle of the day while feed- 
ing on a California Towhee. On the same day 
a male specimen of /wnco hyemalis was shot 
from among a flock of Oregon Juncos. De- 
cember 29 a male Rocky Mountain Creeper was 
collected. On December 15 a male Rusty 
Blackbird, which was drinking at a creek, and 
which was without companions. January 26, 
1896, an adult male Bullock’s Oriole in an 
orchard, an early record.’’ All were collected 
by Charles D. Kaeding. 
Mr. N. M. Moran read a paperentitled “ The 
White-throated Swift,’ which will appear en- 
tire later. A paper on “ Macgillivray’s War- 
bler,” by H. W. Carriger, was presented. This 
Warbler arrives at Sonoma about April1. The 
first of this species for 1895 was noted on April 
5 1n a clump of wild blackberry bushes along a 
small creek. The birds were afterward ob- 
served in the vines, scolding continually, and 
when the nest was discovered it was fully sixty 
yards from this place. It resorts to the under- 
brush, rarely going up into the trees. The 
favorite nesting sites are in wild rose bushes or 
blackberry vines along the valley streams. A 
pair of these birds have returned to a certain 
patch of rosebushes for several successive sea- 
sons, which cover nearly a quarter of an acre, 
and when any portion of the patch was ap- 
proached the birds would be met, when they 
would immediately begin scolding. Before in- 
cubation commences the bird will silently 
leave the nest while you are some distance 
away and go perhaps twenty feet through the 
underbrush before it utters a note; here it 
commences to cry distressingly, leading the col- 
lector on until he is well away from the nest, when 
the bird disappears. One nest containing 
highly incubated eggs was visited, and by re- 
maining a few feet from the nest the bird would 
approach and go on, but left at the slightest 
movement of the observer. Two nests are 
built each year, and the same localities are often 
returned to year after year. ‘The first set is 
laid about the last of April, and the second 
toward the last of July. One nest, found May 
15, contained five large young, and the same 
pair again on June 21 had a new nest with four 
eggs nearly ready to hatch. ‘The second nest is 
usually built near the first. The first set is 
nearly always of five eggs, and the second of 
three or four. The first nest is placed quite low, 
often not over four inches up and rarely over a 
foot, while the second ranges anywhere from 
six inches to three feet or more, though usually 
about sixteen or eighteen inches. 
As a rule, the first nest is much larger than 
the second. A nest collected May 2, 1895, is 
composed of wild oat straws loosely put to- 
gether, near the center of which is the nest 
