50 
THE CONDOR 
VOL. VI 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
Notes on the Habits of the Water Ousel (Cinclus mexicanus).— My attention was 
first drawn to these birds by a gentleman who claimed he had seen them eat young salmon. At 
the first opportunity I began watching to see if I could verify his statement. 
The birds are seen at all hours of the daj’ flying near the surface of the water, chasing each 
other from stone to stone, until they alight on some large boulder where they sit and sing. The 
song is as clear as a linnet’s and considerably louder. The first time I heard one singing was on 
the 15th of October. The old birds were feeding their young until October 7, and whether this 
prevented their singing, or whether they do not begin to sing until cold weather, as the people 
here say, I cannot just now definitely state. 
So far as I have been able to observe, their food consists of insect larvae, water-bugs, and sal- 
mon eggs and j-ouug fry. In their search for food they alight on the surface of the water and 
paddle about with their wings, their feet, I believe, being absoluteh- useless at this time. They 
can make headway easily against a strong current. In moving over the water they dip their 
head at intervals beneath the surface, drawing the white, nictitating membrane over tlie eyeball 
before each dip. In this way they locate their food before diving. Once the food is seen they 
dive immediately and bring it up in their bill, swallowing after they reach the surface. They al- 
ways come to the surface in nearly exactly the same place that the^^ go down, and I have seen 
them dive repeatedly for salmon eggs, and bring them up, in two feet of swift water. Their stay 
under water is short, not longer than ten seconds. 
The larva of a small black fly that infests the waters here, and attaches itself to every sub- 
merged stone or stick, forms a great part of the food of the ousel. He perches himself on a rock 
in mid-stream, dives above it, allows the current to carry him back past the stone, and tears off 
the larva as he goes by. 
One bird found his way into the hatching house, one day, through the aperture which allows 
the water to come in from the flume outside. The hole is submerged three inches under 
water, yet the bird never hesitated when frightened to find the opening and go out. — J. S. Bur- 
Lilooet, B. C. 
EggfS of Flammulated Screech Owl and Western Evening Grosbeak taken in 
Estes Park, Colorado.— There was taken in Estes Park, Larimer Co., Colorado, by my 'hired 
assassin’ last June, 1903, two sets of eggs of three each of the flammulated screech owl (Megascops 
flammeola) with two female birds. There was taken also the nest, a set of four and the parents of 
W\^ (Coccothraiistes vespertinus niontanns). The eggs were prepared 
succe.ssfully. — Fred M. Dilee, Longmont^ Colo. 
[Mr. Dille has promised an account of these ‘finds,’ with photographs, for an early issue. — E d.] 
California Vulture in San Mateo Co., California. — One afternoon about the middle of 
Januar}’ (1904) Prof. Harold Heath of Stanford University saw a California vulture (Gymnogyps 
californianits) a short distance west of the university, near a place locally known as the ‘Basaltic 
Columns.’ What was probably the same individual was again seen a week later by Mr. Ernest 
Dudley, about a mile from the first station. — W.AT.TER K. Fi.sher, Palo Alto, Cal. 
Notes on the Birds of Hoopa Valley, California®. — Hoopa Valley is a curious little Up- 
per Sonoran ‘island’ tucked away among the mountains of Humboldt county. It is not more 
than six miles long by two broad and is a mere widening of the canyon of Trinity River about 
twelve miles south of the mouth. The valley occupies the center of the Hoopa Indian reserva- 
tion, and is a secluded spot of great natural beauty. Steep mountains rise on all sides, pierced 
only on the north and south by the narrow canyon of the Trinity. These mountains are on the 
borderland between Humid and Arid Transition and they possess a singular charm from the 
large proportion of deciduous trees which one encounters; black, ganyaoia, golden-cup and tan- 
bark (denstflora) oaks, chinquapins (Caslanopsis chrysophylla), and madrones being mixed with 
Douglas spruces, incense cedars, and a few yellow and sugar pines. 
But it is the valley which claims our attention. Here are groves of digger pine (Piniis sabini- 
a 7 ia), and thickets of Ceatiolhiis cuiieatus and Ai'ctostapliylos niauzanita, red-bud (Cercis occiden- 
talis), Christmas-berry (Heteromeles arhutifolia), Stuilax califortiica, and wild grape ( Iritis 
catlfor?tica). All will be recognized as characteristic Upper Sonoran species. 
The following birds are found about the borders of the valley or in the mountains near. 
They are the ordinary Transition species occurring in the coast ranges. Starred * species are rare; 
a. The easiest way to reach Hoopa Valley is by wagon road from Blue Lake, near Humboldt Bay. The writer 
had a drive of two days from this place over the Hoopa mountains, and spent from May 29 to June 7, 1899 either in 
the valley or in the mountains near. 
