The Spotted Owl 
alternative is that the old birds, continu¬ 
ing their distrust of the dangling rope, 
had deliberately moved them. Certain 
it is that they would not normally have 
left the nest perhaps for weeks.” 
One of these young birds was eventu¬ 
ally required for science; but the other was 
dutifully and at much hazard returned to 
the nest, whereupon the parent alighted 
within eighteen inches of the suspended 
ornithologist, and neither offered nor 
feared molestation. The sci¬ 
entists had the satisfaction of 
seeing the old birds accept the 
situation and attend their re¬ 
maining offspring the following 
day in situ. 
On April 5th, 1914, I found a 
nest in western Kern County in a some¬ 
what similar situation, save that the 
country was entirely open, and the nesting 
cliff faced the treeless expanse of the great 
Central Valley. The young in this nest, 
an old Raven’s, upon a ledge thirty feet 
up, were more than half grown, so that the 
deposition of eggs must have occurred 
much earlier than in the instances 
enumerated. 
There is no clear-cut account of the 
notes, and especially of the mating “song,” of the Spotted Owl. Clay 1 
enjoyed a midnight serenade wherein the birds produced a “ghostly 
racket,” preceded by a long-drawn-out whining, which gradually increased 
to a grating sound. In this performance two birds, attracted, no doubt, 
by the light, ventured upon a limb within three feet of the inquisitive 
student. Peyton 2 likens the call of the male to the distant baying of a 
hound, and Dickey 3 confirms this estimate. The last-named authority 
gives the adult cadence as whoo , whoo, who , who , the first two syllables 
being noticeably longer than the others. The note of anxiety is given as 
a “low, musical indrawn whistled ‘Whee ee followed later by an “inde¬ 
scribable turkey-like chuckle.” A concert attended by the author, 
Taken in Ventura County 
Photo by Dickey 
WHO—WHO ARE YOU? 
Condor, Vol. XIII., p. 75. 
2 Loc. cit., p. 122. 
3 Loc. cit., p. 200. 
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