by its absence, yet stragglers remain until 
late in September.’”’ 
The paper was discussed and Mr. W. O. 
Emerson described the summer song of the 
Western Flycatcher as resembling the words 
“‘whittier-whittier-whittier’’ uttered rap- 
idly. 
The address by the President, Mr. Bryant, 
was postponed until the February meeting. 
The following committees were appointed 
for 1897: Program, Messrs. Cohen, /mer- 
son and Bryant; on publication, Messrs. 
Barlow and Taylor. The Northern Dlvis- 
ion meets February 6 at the residence of 
H.R. Taylor in Alameda. 
The Southern Division of the Club held 
an interesting meeting at Highland Park, 
Dec. 28, with thirteen members and thir- 
teen visitors present. F. J. Illingsworth 
of Claremont and Howard Robertson of 
Los Angeles were elected to membership in 
the Club. The annual election of officers 
of the Southern Division resulted as follows: 
President, A. I. McCormick, Vice-Presi- 
dent, Frank B. Jewett; Secretary, Horace 
A. Gaylord; Treasurer, W. B. Judson. 
The program of the evening was taken 
up with the following papers: ‘‘Growth of 
the Club,’’ by Horace A. Gaylord; ‘‘Orni- 
thology as a Study and Recreation,’’ by A. 
I. McCormick; ‘‘Nesting of the Bald Eagle 
in Orange County, Cal.’’ by Evan Davis 
and read by F. S. Daggett; ‘‘Notes on Sea 
Birds’? by Jos. Grinnell. These papers 
will appear complete in next month’s pro- 
ceedings. Edward Simmons presented an 
interesting paper, as fellows, entitled: 
Nesting of the Dusky Poor-Will. 
“Tt is not my object in this paper to dis- 
cuss the fine points of distinction of our 
resident species with reference to its iden- 
tity, which is known to be somewhat 
“dusky.’’ My aim is to write a few notes 
on the nesting habits. My first success in 
finding the nest of the Poor-will began with 
the season of ’93. After repeated trials of 
search not extending over more than one- 
halt acre of ground my efforts were rewarded 
by finding a set of two badly incubated 
eggs. This event occurred on June 14, 
1893. In describing this find I quote from 
Mr. Badger’s article, entitled ‘‘Nidification 
of the California Poor-will’’ in May 1894 
Nipouocist, which was a parallel case to 
mine. He says: ‘Several days later, re- 
turning to the locality and cautiously work- 
ing my way along, stopping at every few 
THE NIDOLOGIST 65 
steps to examine the ground ahead of me, 
I was finally rewarded. About three feet 
ahead sat the object of my search. Bunched 
up as it was it seemed more like an ipani- 
mate object than a bird. Indeed my eyes 
ranged over the spot several times before I 
became conscious of its presence. I was, 
in fact, about to advance, feeling sure that 
nothing more than the same white bits of 
chalky rocks lay ahead of me, when, as if 
coming out of the earth, my bird appeared.’ 
A little farther on he says: ‘Her eyes were 
closed, though the head was tilted a little 
off the horizontal, as if watching me through 
the ever so-slightly divided eyelids. Get- 
ting on my knees and slowly approaching 
her, she gaveno sign of disturbance till my 
hand came within about twelve inches, 
when she quickly and silently as a shadow, 
glided away.’ 
“«‘And silently ghded away.’ This last 
description does not tally with my exper- 
ience. The bird, on leaving the nest, 
uttered acontinued note of alarm, which 
lasted during a flight of about roo feet from 
the nest. I was not long in taking the two 
white eggs, which lay ina slight depres- 
sion of the earth, not made by the bird, 
however. The eggs were placed about 
twelve inches from a small eucalyptus and 
this was the only vegetation within ten 
feet. The season of ’94 was what might 
be termed an ‘off year’ for me in collecting 
Poor-willseggs, but I was lucky or unlucky 
enough to discover two nests of young dur- 
ing the season. A few words about them 
might be of interest. I found one brood 
when they were quite young, not hatched 
more than one or two days. These birds 
were well covered with yellow down re- 
sembling that of a young pigeon. My 
observation of their development only lasted 
through a period of about ten days. The 
most interesting feature about them was 
that upon revisiting the place I would find 
the young moved a few feet from the old site. 
How the parent birds accomplished this, if 
they did, Iam unable to state, but this was 
noticeable after every visit till I lost track of 
them altogether. The old birds must have 
assisted them, for all I could gain upon ex- 
aming the young was that they were per- 
fectly helpless. I noticed the development 
of the feathers, especially the wings, which 
grew very rapidly. I am sure the young 
receive no food during the day, for when I 
visited them they seemed dormant,and both 
parent birds were flushed near them; one of 
