138 



TBX, 00I.0GIS7 



plaintive scolding of a Cat-bird,— that 

 brings me back to earth. A visit to 

 their haunts is one sure to be a pleas- 

 ure to all who are lovers of the beauti- 

 ful, of which the bird himself is the 

 fairest model. Nest building begins 

 in theTatter part of April, and contin- 

 ues until the latter part of June, or 

 early in July. Two, sometimes three, 

 broods are reared in a season, nests be- 

 being as numerous in June as in May. 

 The latest date for fresh eggs that I 

 find in my note book is June 11. The 

 nest, a neat cup-shaped structure, is 

 always placed in the upright fork of 

 some small bush or reed ranging in 

 height from six inches to five or six 

 feet from the ground. The nest is 

 made of collection of leaves, fine strips 

 of bark, and fine grasses, neatly lined 

 with fine grasses, or hair from the tails 

 of horses and cattle, or a kind of very 

 fine black moss; the latter is used in 

 the linings of more nests than both 

 the former, and on rare occasions all 

 three appear. The number of eggs are 

 three or four, rarely five. Three typical 

 specimens taken by me in Norfolk 

 county, Virginia, measure as follows: 

 ,64x.54, .t)7x.5 k 2, .66x.52. By from the 

 middle to the latter part of September 

 they begin to migrate southward dis- 

 appearing by the fifth of October. 

 R. Pearce Smithwick. 

 Norfolk, Virginia. 



Last Year's Birds' Nests. 



Much valuable information can be 

 obtained at this season by the Oologist 

 by studying the location and nesting 

 material of unfamiliar birds' nests, 

 thus enabling one to more easily locate 

 the new species in the breeding season. 

 . Last year I located a new heronry in 

 this way. Always make a note of any- 

 thing peculiar about a nest or nesting 

 site. 



Sincerely, 

 A. YV. Comfort, 



SOME HAWKING TRIPS. 



Cooper's Hawk in Southern California. 



By Harry H. Dunn. 

 Ill 



In my last paper I promised to tell 

 something of an adventure, or rather 

 an accidental meeting I had with a 

 deputy game warden and its results in 

 an oological way. My frind, Mr. A. 

 H. Bradford, of Placentia, California, 

 and myself were driving up the "River- 

 side road," a splendid bit of highway 

 some thirty miles long leading across 

 the eastern boundry of Orange county 

 one bright March morning some three 

 or four years ago when he suggested 

 that we "investigate" a wide-mouthed 

 canyon that came down to the very 

 road, its level bed separated therefrom 

 by a high wire fence. This was famous 

 hawk ground and we were on the look- 

 out for anything from Red-tails to Cali- 

 fornia Vultures, though with little hope 

 of the latter. 



Accordingly we drove up the well 

 defined road in the bed of the canyon 

 until we came suddenly upon a large 

 ranch house, looking as out of place 

 as a hummingbird's egg in an ostrich's 

 nest. Beyond the house were large 

 sycamores through which the road 

 wound on and on. We drove along 

 hailed by a half-dozen curs of various 

 lineages, but seeing no one until, flash- 

 ing into view around a corner of the 

 house appeared a half-breed Mexican, 

 a star on his breast of the sfzeof a full- 

 grown pie and two huge revolvers of 

 undoubted argumentative ability 

 strapped to his middle. He demanded 

 our business in his canyon. We told 

 him we were after natural history speci- 

 mens; he stared at us in blank amaze- 

 ment. Then: "Well, if ye've got any 

 bizniss up ther' be at it, but I don't 

 allow no trespassin' on my land." As 

 time proved he was a minion of the 

 Bixby Ranch company, a mongrel 



