94 THE CONDOR I VoL. VIII mon. It seemed as tho a general exodus had taken place. This year we found four pairs of horned owls, all of which were nesting in red-tails' nests. On March 29 a set of two sterile eggs were taken from a red-tail's nest sixty feet up in a sycamore. The bird flushed when we were about ?5o yards from the nest. This timidity was probably a personal characteristic of that individual as they are usually hard to flush. A partially devoured wood rat was found on the edge of this nest. On March 30 two other nests were found both containing downy young about a week old. As I was climbing up to one of these nests the old bird flopped off just as I reached the base of the nest while her faithful spouse sat snoozing away, hunched up on a limb that extended out beyond the nest. A fourth bird was flushed but we did not investigate the contents of the nest. Among other things found in horned owls' nests were the remains of meadow mice, gophers and a brown-looted wood-rat. Several barn owls' nests were located in hollow sycamores and crannies in the cliffs. One nest which on March 25, ?9o5, contained four eggs and one newly hatched young held three half-grown young on March 25, t9o6. ' California screech owls were not at all plentiful and no nests were located.' A pair of burrowing owls were seen on March 30. One was sitting at the en- trance of a deserted ground squirrel burrow while the other perched on a newly installed telephone pole which was evidently a welcome improvement in their domain as it afforded the only elevated perch in the neighborhood. American sparrow hawks were common in the sycamores where they nested in natnral cavities and in old flicker holes. A set of five fresh eggs was found March 27, i9o3, and a nest with four full-fledged young was located on May 29 , t9o4. Red-bellied hawks made themselves conspicuous by squalling as they flew about over the northern oak-covered slopes. The crows and red-bellied hawks usually nested in the same locality and it was hard to distinguish the hawkg' nests from the crows' nests as the birds were shy and often flushed before we located the nests. On April ?, t9o5, we found a nest with the old bird sitting. The nest was placed up against a trunk of a large sycamore that towered up above a dense grove of live oaks. The nest had evidently been used for several years previously and had just been relined with sycamore bark and green leaves. The nest con- tained three handsome eggs in which incubation had just started. The ground color of all the eggs was clear white. Two of the eggs have a series of heavy bay blotches about the larger end. One of these eggs was especially well marked being the handsomest egg out of twenty-three sets and sixty-five eggs. The third egg had on. ly a few pale heliotrope purple shell markings. On March 30, I9O6, [ found another nest that I had missed the previous year. This nest was up against the main branch of a tree that ran out over a creek. The bird flushed when I rapped on th.e tree trunk. The nest was lined with ?ne syca- more bark and contained three eggs of tl:e regulation type. The six eggs meas- ured 2.o6xt.57, 2. t3x?.63, 2.o7xt.6o and 2.i8x?.67, 2.t6xt.67, 2. i8xi.7o. A male red-bellied hawk shot April t, ?9o5, had one Jerusalem cricket and two fence lizards in its stomach. About five miles back from the coast there was a large crescent-shaped sand- stone cliff that had numerous potholes in its face which from a distance gave it the appearance of ha/ting had the small pox. It appeared as tho the whole side of the hill had slumped off into the canyon leaving a cliff about I5O feet high. On April ?, ?9o5, we discovered that a pair of duck hawks were nesting in one of the pot-holes. But the cliff bulged out just above the nest and as we had no rope we
