The Oologist. 



Vol. XXIII. No. 5. 



Albion, N. Y., May, 1906. 



Whole No. 226 



THE OOLOGIST, 



A Monthly Publication Devoted to 



OOLOGY, ORNITHOLOGY AND TAXI- 

 DERMY. 

 FRANK H. LATTIN, Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. 7. 

 ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student of Birds, their Nests and Eggs, solicited 

 from all. 



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ERNEST H. SHORT, Editor and Manager, 

 Chili, Monroe Co.. N. Y. 



Among the Hills of California. 

 By HARRY H. DUNN. 

 I sit by the cheery grate this cool 

 October evening, Davie's "Nests and 

 Eggs," Reed's "Eggs of North Ameri- 

 can Birds," and Ridgeway's beloved 

 "Manual" on the table; the time sea- 



soned briar in my mouth and across 

 my knees that rare and dear old vol- 

 ume that Dr. Cooper wrote more than 

 thirty years ago — "The Land Birds of 

 California." 



And, one by one with the pages of 

 the book, the leaves of memory glide 

 past, a retrospective vision. Once 

 more I am living on the rim of hills 

 that swings in a semicircle about my 

 old Southern California home. It is 

 morning in May — morning with a glint 

 of silver around the golden edges of 

 the new-born day. I slip away over 

 the hills while mother and father are 

 yet asleep — clad in corduroys and a 

 denim shirt — a warm garb but service- 

 able in the underbrush and on the 

 sides of rough-barked oaks and scy- 

 amores. At my heels trailed Schneider 

 — a squat, little dog of no pedigree, 

 but undoubted bravery and skill as a 

 squirrel catcher — peace be to his 

 ashes, he died a few months ago. 



Directly back of the house lay a 

 sloping stretch of natural springs of 

 crude oil. The liquid from these 

 mingled with the dust and earth of the 

 hillside until it had former a crust 

 through which, at rare intervals, a 

 clump of California laurel had grown. 

 No carpet of grass covered this bar- 

 ren place, and over it at eventide the 

 nighthawks flew by dozens. Often, 

 in seasons previous, had I searched 

 for their nests unsuccessfully, but this 

 morning, moving slowly through a 

 clump of laurel, thinking of a certain 

 sycamore flat toward which I was 

 headed, I almost steped on Mrs. Night- 

 hawk covering her two eggs amid 

 the dead and fallen leaves of last year. 



