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I4o DRY NOTES FROhi DRY LAKE [Vol.. VII over the lake causing a deep booming sound which was plainly heard a long way through the calm cold air of evening. A short time after we had gone to bed we heard an owl hooting over in the woods near the lake. The call notes were new to us but we failed to locate their source. About midnight I was awakened by Mr. Grinnell as he slipped out of bed. I watched him for several minutes as he stole stealthily about peering up into the pine trees. Then as a little owl came flitting over the campfire I recog- nized the cause of his nocturnal wanderings. The owl flew back and forth near the fire, perching for a moment now aud then on the lower branches of a pine tree. Mr. Grinnell kept up with the bird, now advancing, now retreating, while his march was punctuated with smothered exclamations as his stocking feet came in contact with pine cones. Suddenly the sharp spiteful crack of the "aux" rang out; the owl circled over the bed and disappeared in the darkness. Nothing else disturbed our fitfnl slumbers until the golden rays of the sun reflected brightly from the snow covered summit of old Grayback. Some weeks later at Bluff Lake we again heard an owl calling. The notes were exactly the same as those heard at Dry Lake. The bird seemed to be off about 300 yards on a ridge but we fonnd that the notes were very deceptive, and that the bird was not so far away as it seemed to be. Mr. Grinnell finally located the bird in the top of a tall pine tree and a charge of number six shot brought it down. It was a flammnlated screech owl (Olusjqammeola). Our provisions were running low, so after a very light breakfast, which con- .sisted of two hardtacks, five dried prunes, five ginger snaps and a few sour beans for each o? us, we set out to examine our mammal traps. As I was returning to camp a male Williamson sapsucker ($?hyrapicus thryoidens) flew by me and lit on the side of a Murray pine. I shot the bird. When I picked him up I saw that his bill was tull of ants. I began to look for a nest as I felt sure that he was carry- ing the auts to his mate or their young. I looked up the tree and saw several holes. Then a faint squeaking came to my ears. The tree was alive but up about twenty feet were four holes drilled about eighteen inches apart. I found when I chopped the nest out that the wood where the holes were pecked was dead and partially rotten. The nest cavity was about ten inches deep and was occupied by three young birds which were still covered with tiatal down. In the bottom of the nest, partially covered with fine chips were two sterile eggs. The tfirds were very 'noisy; also hungry as they tried to swallow my finger every time it came too close to their bills. The female was near and seemed very much con- cerned. Her anxiety was perhaps increased by the loss of her mate so I fixed up the hole I had cut and descended. Although she had the responsibility and work of two thrown on her in rearing the young, she seemed equal to the occasion for when I visited the nest two weeks later the young had flown. Later in the day another nest was found similarly located containing four half fledged young. Audubon warblers (Dendroica auduboni) flitted about among the trees carry- ing worms and insects to their mates or broods which were laidden away among the thick boughs of some pine tree. Just above the cienega in a thicket of chinqua- pin bushes we flushed a fanlily of Stephens fox sparrows (Passerella i. stephensi). The young were barely able to fly but scattered in all directions on our approach. The brilliant morning sunlight soon drove away the chilliness that had settled uver the woods during the night, and brought forth the birds from their various resting places. Their lively twittering and call notes reminded us that we too must begin our day's work, so we packed our blankets and traps and threw them across our shoulders, picked up our guns, a.nd started over the ridge towards the north where our base camp lay some 3000 feet below us. Pasadena, California.