THE OOLOGIST. 



which have reared young or been 

 hatched on the hillsides during the 

 previous spring and summer. It seems 

 rather a sort of universal spreading 

 out, probably caused by the falling off 

 of their food supply with which the 

 ripening seeds of the summer and 

 autumn kept the gray earth of the 

 higher slopes well covered. 



But in early spring, they return 

 again to their nesting grounds. A few 

 remain along the sandy "washes" of 

 the valley, there to rear their joung in 

 cozy homes well built among the many 

 forked branches of some huge sage 

 bush. By far the greater part drift 

 back and upward, however, to an alti- 

 tude of from four hundred to four 

 thousand feet. The breeding season 

 ranges from the 15th of March to a like 

 date in August, and two broods are 

 often reared. I know of one pair which 

 built successively five nests, the female 

 laying five sets of eggs in one season, 

 each stt having been taken from her as 

 soon as laid. These five sets were 1-4, 

 1-4, 1-3, 1-4, 1-3. She was permitted to 

 hatch the last set, which she did, rear- 

 ing three husky brown fellows there- 

 from. 



The nest of this bird is one of the 

 most peculiarly beautiful of all the 

 Finch tribe, and even the last nest of 

 the female mentioned above was a 

 model .of bird architecture. The outer 

 nest is almost always made of rather 

 coarse sage twigs closely interwoven 

 among the branches of the shrub in 

 which the home is to be placed. This 

 is usually a sage or other low bush- 

 the nest seldom being more than two 

 or three feet from the ground. Next 

 comes a rather thick cup of grass blades 

 and very fine flexible twigs which is 

 the real protection of the eggs and 

 young birds. Inside this is a lining 

 usually of hair of some kind and is soft 

 and even as a loving pair of parent birds 

 can make it. This background seems 

 to be made with the special object of 



best displaying the pale blue-green 

 eggs, which are— as another writer has 

 said— much like those of the different 

 Red-winged Blackbirds, though it is 

 comparatively easy for the observant 

 collector to distinguish many small dif- 

 ferences between the two. 



In both the fall and spring move- 

 ments of the Towhees noted above very 

 few of the birds are seen. And yet I do 

 not think that they migrate at night, 

 but rather attribute their invisibility to 

 the skulking habit3 of the birds and the 

 prevalence of brush heaps and weed 

 patches throughout Orange county. 

 The birds do not make extended flights 

 but merely move from one orchard or 

 overgrown field to another, distances 

 of seldom more than two or three hun- 

 dred yards, thus progressing by slow 

 stages to the mountains or upper mesas. 

 G iog back, the operation is repeated 

 until their winter home in the lowlands 

 s reached. 



The Brown Towhees have always 

 been of more interest to me than the 

 Spurred species, probably because I 

 have had more and better opportuni- 

 ties for the study of the former. I have 

 found as high as five eg^s in one set of 

 Anthony's Towhee, but the usual run is 

 four, while most of the first sets and all 

 of the last are of only three eggs. 



Habrt H. Dunn. 



Los Angeles, Cal. 

 November 14, 1902. 



Bird Acrobats. 



July 15, 1903. When out for a ram- 

 ble I noticed a Bluebird practicing 

 some athletic tricks, so I stopped to 

 watch him. The Bluebird would fly 

 high into the air, poise for a moment 

 on the wing, then quickly descend to a 

 branch. It practiced this several times 

 when all of a sudden a Red-headed 

 Woodpecker flew from a stump and 

 tried the same thing. Although the 

 Woodpecker was a great deal clumsier 

 than the little B uebird, his attempts 

 were far from failures. 



M. B.Denny, Waubeek, Iowa. 



