68 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
twenty feet up ; but the triumph of the day’s work was the finding of a Thick- 
l)illed Sparrow’s nest with four partly incubated eggs. Locating nests of this 
bird is without a doubt one of the most difficult problems presented to the field 
worker at Fyffe. Barlow relates how his long search was unrewarded, and I 
deemed myself quite fortunate in finding one. While working through a patch 
of very thick brush I came upon the sparrow on her nest. The bird rose reluc- 
tantly, flew a short distance but soon returned, and became very solicitous for 
the safety of her abode and its contents. I have watched Thick-billed Sparrows 
hour after hour, endeavoring to gain some clue to the location of a hidden nesi, 
and yet the birds would continue unconcernedly feeding or singing or idling tlieir 
time away, apparently unconscious that such a thing as a nest existed. But now 
what a difference when the nest was located ! Oh, you wise Thick-bills 1 The 
Fig. 31. “Tommy”, the oldest of the five Saw-whet 
Owls. This individual w'as kept captive, but lived 
ONLY A SHORT TIME AFTER ITS REMOVAL TO SaN FraNCISCO. 
It PROVED itself a gentle and playful pet. 
nest, of coarse twigs lined with fine bark strips and fibers, was placed three feet 
up in a tangle of cedar and fir saplings, on a dead bare branch that lay across 
them and adjacent deer brush. The eggs well exhibit that wide diversity of 
coloration which prevails in the eggs of this species, for not only are they en- 
tirely different from three other sets I have from higher altitudes, but two of 
them show striking individual variation. 
Principally to obtain an index to conditions, I climbed to a nest of the Red- 
shafted Flicker {Colaptes cafer collaris), twenty feet up in a dead black oak on 
a hillside. The bird flushed, but re-entered the cavity while I was ascending the 
tree. I had no climbers and twice I slid back down the limbless trunk, but on the 
third attempt I succeeded in reaching a solitary limb that hospitably gave me fooF 
hold. In the cavity, on a bed of wood chips, lay six eggs whose glossy, semi- 
