Sept, 1914 
THE NESTING OF THE SPOTTED OWL 
199 
Along toward four o ’clock the young again grew active according to their 
daily custom, and as they appeared the adult flew to the nest from the perch 
where she had slept all day. As she alit she noticed the tackle dangling just 
above the nest and immediately circled back to the fir, and began uttering 
repeatedly a loAv, indraivn whistle, “Whee e e?” with a sharp rising inflection. 
If this Avas intended as an alarm note it had no effect on the young. They 
rema;ined on the edge of the nest and only increased the bobbing interest they 
took in the rope above their heads. Soon came the deep, “Whoo, Avhoo, Avho, 
AA"ho” of the other parent from far up the mountain. He Avas ansAvered by the 
supposed female and a moment later he, too, fleAV doAvn into a tree near the 
nest. As Ave rode aAvay they sat in nearby trees, outlined against the piled-up 
cloud masses of a storm back 
in the range. 
On the sixth of June we 
rode till midafternoon back 
up the zig-zags of the steep 
canyon trail among the yel- 
loAV bells of the mariposa lily 
and the cream clusters of 
floAvering yuccas. At last 
Ave reached the owl cliff and 
a ludicrous anticlimax. Pic- 
ture the three grim cliff 
scalers Avith their five hun- 
dred feet of rope riding up 
and finding the oavIs not on 
the ledge at all, but come to 
meet them ! It Avas nearly 
as bad as that, for there, in 
an insignificant oak across 
the raAune, sat the two 
youngsters Avith their par- 
ent. All three Avere Avell 
within the reach of any six- 
year-old boy. They Avere dis- 
tant a hundred yards or so 
from the nest and the hillside 
rose so steeply on that side 
that they Avere almost level 
with the nest although not Fig. 59. Young Spotted Owl still in the down. 
over fifteen feet from 
the ground. That the young could have reached the spot unaided seems in- 
credible, for although the primaries Avere Avell groAvn out, they Avere, Avith that 
exception, in the complete doAvn, and Avere still Aveak. The alternative is that 
the old birds, continuing their distrust of the dangling rope, had deliberately 
moved them. Certain it is that they would not normally have left the nest 
perhaps for Aveeks. 
As Ave climbed to the young in the oak the old bird displayed her first 
sign of vital interest, flying within touch of the intruding heads and peering 
at us from close perches among the branches. But her passes at us Avere not 
fearsome things. She never even snapped her bill. Silently she SAvooped near, 
