THE CONDOR. 
Bulletin of the Cooper Ornithological Club. 
A Bi-Monthly Exponent of Californian Ornithology.' 
Vol. 3. No. I. Santa Clara, Cal., January-fcbruary, 1901 . $1.00 a Year. 
Bird l^otes from Tacoma Gulches 
BY T. H. BOWLES. 
T his form of bird study is among the 
most dithcult of any I have ever 
attempted, and a few words of 
description may not come amiss. These 
gulches or ravines were undoubtedly 
caused by glacial action, are often several 
miles long, and all run into Puget Sound. 
They vary from 8o to loo feet in depth, 
have small trout brooks running through 
them, and are filled with underbrush 
and debris of all descriptions. In many 
places the bottoms are well wooded 
with fir and cedar. 
The difficulties of thoroughly search- 
ing such places may easily be imagined, 
but they fade rapidly before the abund- 
ance of bird life to be found. A sketch 
of a trip taken May 9, 1898, will give a 
fairly typical day. P'irst to strike the 
oological eye were the high, perpendic- 
ular clay walls, with here and there the 
nesting holes of the Rough-winged 
Swallow (^Stelgidopteryx serripennis), 
and Belted Kingfisher {Ceryle alcyon), 
the former bird only digging a nest for 
itself when all burrows of the latter are 
tenanted. These nests are almost invari- 
ably inacce,ssible, as they vary in 
height from forty to seventy feet above 
one’s reach. 
While gazing at them wdth regretful 
longing, the stillness was suddenly 
broken by the beautiful, bell-like warble 
of the Western Winter Wren <yAnortlmra 
hiemalis pacijica) — to my mind one of 
the most charming singers of the north- 
west. Then I knew ni}^ work was cut 
out, for within half a mile must be his 
nest, which, together with its contents, 
would make a most welcome addition to 
my collection. I walked to the edge of 
the brook and, after traveling a short 
distance along it, the way was blocked 
by a giant fir that, in falling years 
before, had split in the middle. From 
deep in this split appeared suspicious- 
looking twigs, but past experience had 
taught me not to expect the real nest 
within a hundred yards of a singing 
Winter Wren. Nor was I mistaken this 
time, for it proved to be nothing more 
than a well-built “decoy,” about which 
the bird made a very natural “bluff” of 
anxiety. 
The tree being fully six feet in diam- 
eter and covered with vegetation of all 
kinds, my climb over it was accomplished 
with considerable noise, and on sliding 
down on the other side I was promptly 
greeted with an angry buzz. It proved 
to come from a female Rufous Humming- 
bird {Selasp/ioi'us rufiis), and seldom 
have I seen such an atom of concentrat- 
ed rage. A close inspection of the 
vicinity showed her to have good 
grounds for anger, as in my slide I had 
passed within a few inches of her nest 
with its set of two eggs. It was saddled 
