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THE. CO.IB.OR Volume XVI ,?eptern]3er-October, 1?1'4. N?rnber ? THE NESTING OF THE SPOTTED OWL By DONALD R. DICKEY WITH SEVEN PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR ?E HAD BEEN prospecting for a rumored condor ledge high in the coast mountains of Ventura County, California, and had come at night to a little valley where horse feed grew close to a clear,. cold spring. It was an ideal camp site, and we left it with real regret as the early sun first began to creep down the western wall of the canyon on the memorable morning of May 15, 1913. In the bottoms it was still cold and damp, but as we climbed we slowly left behind the chili of the dark, sweet-smelling bays and the shade of the alder fringe along the creek, and came out into the open and warmth of the pines. The saddle of the range which we were crossing was, roughly speaking, five thousand feet above the sea, so there was much to interest an eye and ear trained in the lowlands: here a fleshy crimson snow-plant, there a blue-fronted jay, so much the superior of our crestless, nest-robbing sneak of the lower live- oak valleys; or, perhaps, a slender-billed nuthatch "yanking" among the scat- tered oaks, or a friendly Bailey chickadee. Once again the trail led into the shadow. This time at the foot of a high, overhanging cliff of red conglomerate, weathered out into fantastic casteL lated shapes. The pack horse was leading like a lamb for once in his aggravat- ing career, so with leg flung across the saddle horn I had nothing to do but swing with the stride of old "Powhatan", and let my eyes wander eagerly over cliff face and tree. Suddenly, in the black mouth of a pot-hole high on the rock wall, I caught a glimpse of a large round head. Almost instantly the bird shrank back into the dark interior, but the glimpse had satisfied me that I had seen my first Spotted Owl (St?ix occidentalis occ?dental?s) ! Man may voluntarily have come to the ground with greater speed than mine in that instant, but I doubt it. The