66 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
and 1 felt the loss keenly when it died shortly after my return home. This speci- 
men was given to the California Academy of Sciences. At no time on the sev- 
eral visits I made to the nest of the Saw-Whet Owls were the parent birds seen, 
although on several occasions I waited patiently for them to appear. 
While returning- to Fyffe, after my work at the owl nest, I noted an Em- 
pidoiiax, either haininondi or 7.cnghti, a Cassin Vireo (Lanivirco solitarius cas- 
siiii), which was engaged m nest building, and a Red-breasted Nuthatch drilling- 
in a lofty and practically inaccessible nesting site. 
It rained hard during the night, and continued intermittently the next day 
( May t8), making the woods so wet that field work was not only unpleasant but 
Fig. 29. Nesting Site ok the Saw-whet Owe on a rather open hill 
SLOPE IN Webber Canyon, southwest of Fyffe. The cavity occu- 
pied WAS FOURTEEN FEET ABOVE THE GROUND IN THE LARGE STUB IN 
CENTER OF PICTURE. “MOUNTAIN MISERY”CARPETS THE FOREGROUND. 
dangerous, on account of the slippery condition of the tree trunks. After cov- 
ering several miles through the dripping forest I confined my work to the more 
open hillsides and to those sections that edged along the high road. Among the 
bird-homes found during the day, two were curiously an exact repetition of what 
T had found two days previously. The first, one of the Sierra Junco, held four 
eggs well along in incubation, and was hidden under a fallen pine log on the 
edge of a corral. It was made of stems, and lined with fine light-colored grasses 
and animal hair. The second nest, as before, was a Spurred Towhee’s, and was 
hidden in mountain misery along the irrigation ditch. The bird was flushed from 
its nest of stems and grasses, lined with fine grasses, disclosing four fresh eggs. 
