136 



THE OOLOGIST. 



and watch but with no result. 



After an hours slow walking without 

 seeing any new nests, we were stopped 

 by another Annas. We sat down on the 

 ground and kept very quiet. After 

 about ten minutes wait Mr. Bryant got 

 up and said, "We have got it." He 

 explained by saying that he heard the 

 peculiar buzz the female makes when 

 setting on her nest. We soon located 

 Mrs. Anna on her nest four feet from 

 the main limb. Mr. Bryant stripped 

 his coat and claimed the honor of get- 

 ing the nest. On getting opposite the 

 little lady he politely asked her to va- 

 cate, which she declined to do. He 

 took off his hat and made two or three 

 passes at her before she did leave. 

 Then the next move was to cut a twig 

 right length and place a wad of cotton 

 in the nest over the eggs. I then sent 

 up the hatchet, (which by the way was 

 not so sharp as it might have been) 

 and by easy and slow cutting he cut 

 the branch nearly through, then pulled 

 it toward him until he could get hold 

 of same close to nest. I then sent up 

 the smallest of the collecting boxes 

 ( made from Mr. Bryant's idea of a col- 

 lecting box) and he placed the eggs in 

 same, placed the rubber band around 

 the box and threw it down to me. He 

 then cut the branch off about four 

 inches each side of the nest and lowered 

 it down to me, then came down himself. 



After a short rest we started on. We 

 heard more Hummers, Warblers, Bush 

 Tits, Jays, Towhees, California Thrash- 

 ers, Spurred Towhees, but no more 

 nests. As it was now about eleven 

 o'clock we began to work back towards 

 the buggy and lunch. When we got 

 back to the buggy we drove about one- 

 half mile further on and down a side 

 road before lunching. 



After lunch we started out again 

 along the side hill. We walked about 

 one-half mile without seeing a nest, so 

 turned back. On the way back we 

 started a Jay, and about forty feet from 



where we first saw her we found the 

 nest, about ten feet up in second 

 growth white Oak - I made the climb 

 up to the nest and looked in and saw as 

 fine a set of five eggs as an oologist 

 would want to see. Placing them in 

 my collecting box I passed the box 

 down to Mr. Bryant, then cut away a 

 small branch that was holding the 

 nest. I very carefully took out the 

 nest and came down. We worked our 

 way towards the buggy and left the 

 nest of the Jay there then went further 

 on. We noticed a couple of Bush-tits 

 acting in a peculiar way so sat down 

 to watch. We were on the bank of a 

 small cut where there was some water 

 runniug. During the fifteen or twenty 

 minutes we were there we noted the 

 following birds that had come for 

 water: California Bush-Tit, Arizona 

 Goldfinch, Western Chipping Sparrow, 

 Western Bluebird and Western Lark 

 Sparrow. We got up from where we 

 were sitting and started out to find some 

 of their nests, Mr. Bryant on one side of 

 the cut and I on the other. Mr. Bry- 

 ant called to me and told me to come 

 and find the Bush-Tit's nest. I did so 

 and very readily found the beautiful 

 nest of this peculiar bird. I think that 

 this bird and the Hummingbirds' are 

 entitled to honors for nest building. 

 The nest was about nine inches long 

 and four inches in diameter, growing 

 smaller near the top, where the open- 

 ing or door to nest was. We soon 

 found that the eggs were hatched and 

 that we were too late. We spent 

 another hour looking for more nests 

 but found none, so started for home. 



On the way home Mr. Bryant sug- 

 gested that we go out about a mile east 

 of town and visit a Bush-Tit's nest 

 that he had found two weeks previous 

 When he found the nest it was not com- 

 pleted. But when we got there we took 

 the nest and on pouring the eggs out 

 found seven diminutive pure white 

 eggs, one of which was cracked. I 



