68 THE CONDOR VoL XVl twenty feet up; but the triumph of the day's work was the finding of a Thick- billed Sparrow's nest with four partly incubated eggs. Locating nestg 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 nest, and yet the birds would continue unconcernedly feeding or singing or idling their time away, apparently unconscious that such a thing as a nest existed. But now what a difference when the nest xvas located! Oh, you wise Thick-biiis! The Fig. 31. "TOMMY", THE OLDEST OF THE FIVE SAW-WHET OWLS. THIS INDIVIDUAL WAS KEPT CAPTIVE, BUT LIVED ONLY A SHORT TIME AFTER ITS REMOVAL TO SAN I?RANCISCO. IT PROVED ITSELX? A ?E?TLE A?D PLAYFUL PEr. 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 (Colapres ca[er 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 foot- hold. In the 'cavity, on a bed of wood chips, lay six eggs whose gloss. y, semi-
