Jan., 1<)11 
A HISTORY OF CERTAIN GREAT HORNET) OWl.S 
1 <) 
and in this a pair of Red-tailed Hawks had built their l)nlky aerie in a tall white ash 
tree, seventy-five feet from the ground. Following the custom of most of their tribe 
when suitable hollow trees are no longer to be had, the big owls appropriated this 
new refuge and in it, in spite of rain, sleet, snow, and wind, successfully raised 
their brood. To be sure we had no exact proof that these were the very owls with 
which we had dealt in other years, nevertheless we felt morally certain. The 
new locality was the nearest available one and for many years, until 1908, had not 
boasted its pair of owls. 
The years 1909 aiid 1910 add nothing new to the history of the owls except 
that, in the former year, a January" gale destroyed the nest in the ash tree and the 
valiant pair were apparently forced to a new, but similar, retreat. Their history, 
so far as we were concerned, was a closed o!ie. During the season of 1907 I had 
located five pairs of Great Horned Owls within a radius of seven miles of Mt. 
\'ernon. None of these could be intimately studied except the pair whose history 
I have tried to trace. In February of 1910 I agaii: tried to locate breeding birds of 
this species, but without success. In spite of the big fellow’s tenacity in clinging 
to a locality once chosen, in spite of his cleverness in escaping observation, it 
almost seems now that the coming of the wanton shot-gun army and the going 
of the protecting forests were gradually making the Great Horned Owl, along 
with main' another species without which the woods are stiller and humanity 
poorer, in the more .settled parts of our country at least, a member of a vanishing 
race. 
XKSTING OF THE CALIFORNIA CUCKOO 
]?y ALFRED C. SHELTON 
WITH ONK PHOTO 
R ussian River, flowing through northern Sonoma County, and emptying 
into tlie Pacific Ocean at Duncan’s Mills, receives one small tributar}' from the 
south, designated on the map as Laguna de Santa Rosa. In the locality of 
which I write, about five miles southeast of Sebastopol, this stream, known locally 
as the “Lagoon”, becomes, after some winter storm, a turbulent river, flooding 
acres upon acres of bottom land. In summer its course is marked by a chain of 
long, rather narrow ponds, many of which are deep. The banks, and much of the 
intervening space between these ponds, are covered with a thick growth of willow, 
small ash and scrub oak, while the whole is tangled together with an undergrowth 
of poison-oak, wild blackberry and various creepers, forming, as it were, an im- 
penetrable jungle, hanging far out over the water. Occasionally there is an 
opening in the brush, and in such a case, the bank is fringed with pond-lilies and 
tall rushes, and here may be caught black bass and cat-fish, together with an 
occasional trout. To one who may perchance take an interest in the feathered 
inhabitants, this old lagoon has an especial attraction, for it is a breeding home of 
the California Cuckoo. 
Of all migratory birds breeding in this vicinity, the Cuckoo is the last to 
arrive in the spring, usually apiieariiig during the latter part of May or the first 
week of June. Upon its arrival, this bird keeps to the higher land, among the 
oaks and other timber, for a period of two or three weeks before retiring to the 
willow bottoms to breed. During this period it is wild and shy and difficult to 
