next tree, located another Anna's nest which contained two young, almost ready to fly. This must have been a very early set. Incubation takes 12-14 days and the birds must have been at least that old. Therefore the set must have been laid about the twentieth or twenty-fifth of February. On the way home found two California Shrikes nests. One was finished and ready for eggs and the other contained six fresh eggs. Both nests were in small willows along the roadside. March 24-Three nests of Western Red Tail all of which contained sets of two eggs, incubation commenced. First nest placed forty feet up in small white oak on side of canyon. Second nest placed at head of steep canyon about fifty feet up in live oak. Third nest placed about seventy-five feet up in huge sycamore. This last nest was lined very heavily with down. Dudley S. De Groot, Early Oological Reminiscences When one has been actively engaged in the pursuit of a hobby for over 30 years, naturally one has a great many reminiscences. And it has occured to the writer that they might prove of mild interest to the readers of the oldest oological journal in America. My love of oology was clearly inherited as my father, J. Parker Norris, Sr., was interested in this most delightful of sciences from the time he was a mere lad. He had quite a fine collection of eggs in the late sixties containing series of such good things as Sand-hill Crane, Short-eared Owl, etc., though he disposed of these before my advent into this world, he still retained his love for his early hobby. My first oological recollection is being driving with him in Chester County, Pa., one fine afternoon and his stopping to collect a set of four Indigo birds from a bush along the wooded road through which we were passing. I could not have been more than eight or nine years old at this time. The next memory is another drive this time with a cousin of mine who had a small collection of eggs. We had just reached the edge of our place when my companion stopped and pointed to a nest overhanging the road with the bird on it. By dint or some careful manuevering we managed to reach the nest without getting off of the wagon and found it contained four hard set eggs which were those of the Red-eyed Vireo, though I did not know it at the time. About this time my father began to pick up a few common eggs for me thinking no doubt it would keep me out of mischief. This collection, I, boylike, was very proud of. I do not suppose there were more than 200 eggs at the most, which were contained in two drawers of a book case stained black, belonging to me. The first set I remember collecting myself was a beautifully ringed clutch of four Chats and a Cowbird egg. They were taken on May 30, 1883 in a small patch of woods (near our place at Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Phil.) locally known as "Blackbird's Roost" from the fact that vast numbers of Purple Grackles frequented it in the late summer and fall. I remember to this day how beautiful I thought the find ringed set looked in situ. Though prepared antique, ie., blown with two holes I would not part with this set for any sum, and, curiously enough there is only one other set in my large series that is as handsome. The following year, 1884, one June day, I, with several other boys had been on a tramp through the woods to a certain pond where we were in the habit of going in bathing, and incidentally where I came within an ace of being drowned on one occasion. On our way home one of my comrades was lucky enough to flush a female Maryland Yellow Throat from her set of four eggs. The nest was situated in some weeds alongside of a stream. As the boy had no collection I thought he would give the nest and eggs to me and you can imagine my keen disappointment when he decided to keep them for himself. Years afterward he presented the set to me. The following year in almost identically the same spot I found a fine set of four Yellow Throats. Both this set and the one described above are still in my collection though they too are prepared "antique." It By 1885 my interest had grown in intensity and I spent more time in the woods and took my first sets of such species as Acadian Flycatcher, Redeyed Vireo and Scarlet Tanager. was this same summer that my father's long dormant love of oology burst into flame again. Just what it was unawakened his interest I don't exactly remember but I think it was the sets I was beginning to find in increasing numbers all of which he prepared for me. I am rather inclined to think also that a copy of The Oologist must have fallen into his hands about this time and this of course helped the good cause along. On the 31st of August, 1885, I found a set of twelve Quail and one of six Goldfinch, two examples of very late nesting. The former, though heavily incubated, was saved, but the latter was broken in getting it down the tree. The next day, September 1st, will always stick in my memory, for on that occasion I saw for the first time a real collection of eggs and met for the first time one who has proved to be a life-long friend, Thomas H. Jackson, of West Chester, Pa., that sterling oologist and true man. Then as now, Tom Jackson had a choice collection of finely prepared sets arranged in a most artistic manner. Greatness has always been one of the most pronounced of this veteran oologist's characteristics. The impression made on my father by seeing this collection was such that he thereupon determined to acquire a real collection of his own. Such was the start of the Norris collection. This being the fact, is it any wonder that this occasion should stand out in my memory? Shortly after this we met Harry G. Parker, in his day one of the most enthusiastic of oologists who had during a period of fifteen or twenty years through fine collections, the last of which is known as the Jean Bell collection was one of the best in the country. Parker then lived in Philadelphia and my father and myself spent many a pleasant evening looking over his oological treasures. Parker had a lively, breezy manner that made him very good company and he retains those characteristics to this day. though his health is none of the best. In January, 1886, my father became one of the editors of the famous Ornithologist and Oologist, one of the best ornithological magazines ever published in this country. Through his energetic methods the paper for the next five years contained a splendid lot of articles. In the spring of 1886 I met for the first time, Samuel B. Ladd, universally known to his intimates as "Sam" Ladd. Lad was one of the oologists that have made West Chester famous. Ladd, a lively, jolly soul if ever there was one, was in my opinion, the best collector of Warblers' eggs that breed on the ground in the country. He seemed to have the faculty of going to the spot in the woods where a nest was located; in a few minutes a task that would take the rest of us perhaps several hours. Ladd's success in finding the nest of the Worm-eating Warbler, one that all collectors who have searched for it is difficult to discover was phenomenal. He collected a magnificent series of them in his day and many sets of his take may doubtless be found in various cabinets. I have a very fine lot of sets that he took in my cabinets today, including perhaps the most wonderful clutch in my entire collection, a runt set of five perfect little miniature worm-eating Warblers, only measuring .42 x .36, .42 x .36, .45 x .37, .46 x .36, .46 x .36. An extraordinary feature was that this set was in a nest with a young Cowbird and also contained an addled cowbird's egg. It was certainly remarkable the young Cowbird should not have broken their eggs. Of course they had no yolk and consequently showed no traces of incubation. Ladd a few years later went down to North Carolina and took a number of fine sets of Cairn's Warbler proving he was just as good a collector on strange territory as his own familiar Chester County. In speaking of the Worm-eating Warbler perhaps it is not generally known that Thomas H. Jackson found the first set of eggs of this species ever discovered in June, 1869. Mr. Jackson still possesses this valuable and interesting set. During the season of 1886 I had a somewhat sad experience with the Acadian Flycatcher. I found several nests with fresh eggs near Philadelphia in the early part of June. The latter part of the month I was in Chester County, Pa., and on the 25th, 28th and 30th, I found four or five sets also with fresh eggs. Why there should have been such a difference in the nesting dates within a distance of 30 miles it is difficult to conjecture. The Chester County sets were in such an out of the way place that I feel sure the birds had not been disturbed before. A remarkable instance happened in connection with the set taken on June 25th. The nest was situated far out on a limb and the only way the eggs could be secured was to pull the limb down. The nest contained three eggs of the Flycatcher and one of the Cowbird. While I was up the tree bending the limb down so that my cousin on the ground could reach the eggs, one of them fell to the ground. My cousin secured two of the Flycatcher and the Cowbird's eggs and then asked me if I didn't want the egg on the ground. I said, "Isn't it broken to pieces?" And greatly to my astonishment he said, "It is not." This is the one case in my experience of an unblown egg falling from a height of at least six feet without being damaged in any way. The one explanation that I can offer is that being in the woods it must have landed on a bunch of leaves and thus largely has broken the force of the fall. One of the most interesting of my oological reminiscences is the first time I visited Washington and saw the great National Museum Collection of eggs. In the latter part of December 1886, (the 25th to be exact) my father and I went to Washington at the invitation of Major (then Capt. Bendire). What impressed me the most was the wonderful series of Waders that the National collection possessed. To this day this portion of the collection is the finest and no private collection compares with it in series of rare Sandpipers, Plovers, etc. I remember well Capt. Bendire pulling out a drawer of Tinamon eggs and my astonishment at the first sight of these marvelous eggs with their brilliant colors and burnished copperlike appearance. This Washington visit was not the first time that I had met Bendire as he had been at our house before this date. To my youthful mind the famous oologist was brusque and dogmatic in his manner with a marked German accent, but impressed one as absolutely honest and sincere, though Bendire's knowledge of oology was great he occasionally pronounced sets to be wrong without sufficient foundation for asertions. I remember his looking at the Norris collection on one occasion and picking out several sets of that curious and beautiful type of the Cactus Wren which has a white ground color marked with large blotches of reddish-brown. These he said were the eggs of a long-tailed Chat. A set of Mockingbird with a very deep greenish ground color marked very heavily with a peculiar rich brown was said to be Hepatic Tanager. In looking over the series of Parula he picked out one set which he said was undoubtedly Black-throated Green Warbler. My father pointed out to him that this set was taken by a collector who had taken dozens of sets of Parula, the famous "J. M. W." or C. L. Rawson of Norwich, Conn., to give him his real name. Bendire would not be convinced however. Joseph Parker Norris, Jr. In California In answer to your appeal for a copy am sending you a little dope on the Pacific Horned Owl, which if you think of sufficient interest to publish you may do so. On the 17th of March I decided to look up a few nests of the Western Red Tail, which a friend of mine told me I might find in a clump of willows and cotton-wood trees which were about two and a half miles north of Wasco, Kern Co., Calif. So on the afternoon of the above mentioned date, I cranked up the old lizzie and started out. It was only a few minutes drive to these trees, I soon had a nest spotted and drove over to the tree which stood alone about 200 yards from the others, a large Red Tail was perched on a low limb of the tree, but as I drove up it flew away and as it did I noticed a fair sized rabbit in it's talons. (We use the "It" because I was not able to identify the sex). I strapped on my climbers and was soon up to the nest. but "stung" it was all nicely lined with bark, but no eggs. Two other nests were examined with the same old luck "No eggs." I decided I was a little early so I started for home, and while driving back through a part of the trees I saw a large Pacific Horned Owl fly from one of the trees or at least I thought it did but did not have a chance to spot the right one. Anyway I had plenty of time and I decided to investigate, so I drove over into the tree looking for a likely place for this old bird's nest. I soon saw an old snag of a willow tree and up in it just fourteen feet was a place where a limb had broken out leaving a little pocket about five inches deep, although I did not expect to find a Pacific Horned Owl nesting in such a handy place but I thought it would do no hurt to investigate, so I stopped a few feet from the tree, and went over to it and while I was looking the situation over I saw another hole in the tree about eleven feet up. and just as I started to climb up, out came an old American Barn Owl. I quickly decided that the first mentioned owl must have been one of the species instead of a Pacific Horned Owl, so on up I went and before I got to the hole out came another American Barn Owl. This began to puzzle me, why there should be three owls, but by now I was convinced that the first owl must have been one of this species. On looking into the next hole, I found three well incubated eggs, which I decided to leave on account of being such a small set. I had almost forgotten the hole further up, when I happened to think of it I almost decided it would be a waste of time to go on up, but something seemed to tell me to go on up, so I went only three feet farther but a little difficult on account of this arrangement of the limbs at this point. On looking into the crotch, or rather the pocket which was caused by a limb falling out years ago which was really in the crotch, I was very much surprised to see four large round white eggs which could be nothing but Pacific Horned Owl eggs, but this was not sufficient identification so after a wait of about an hour the old bird returned to a nearby tree affording me a good view of her and thereby making identification certain. After watching her for a while I decided to try to get a little closer but old Mrs. Owl had her eye on me, and flew away, her mate which I had not seen before joined her and they flew across the valley. After all this surprise I decided to look around for more owls and soon located two more nests of the American Barn Owl which were both in holes in the willow trees and from the accumulation of bones, etc., they have used these same holes for years. I also noticed that the mouth of the holes are all facing the north east. These are the first American Barn Owls I have found nesting in trees since 1907 during that season and previous to that I found several pairs nesting in holes in oak trees in Ventura Co., Calif. But after that they seemed to prefer holes in dirt banks where I have seen as many as a dozen pairs in less than a quarter of a mile of bank. I might mention a few other nests I found while looking for more nests of the Pacific Horned Owl, viz: Two nests of the Mourning Dove, one contained two badly incubated eggs and the other nest contained two fresh eggs, also two nests of the Calif. Shrike, one contained six eggs and the other three. I have never found these birds nesting before the first of April. But my field has never covered any part of Kern before and probably that accounts for it. I would be glad to get in touch with any one who has done field work in Northern Kern County, as I believe this section will afford some valuable things along the bird line. Very truly yours, Catching An Eagle By Hand On March 10, 1917, a friend of mine, a Mr. Truman Blancett, whose home is near the edge of town had quite a unique experience with an Eagle, which was quite interesting, that is for him. About 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon as he went out to feed his chickens, he all of a sudden saw a dark shadow and with a noise like a "sky rocket" down came an Eagle into the chicken yard, and when he spread out his talons to pick up his chicken he caught one toe in the meshes of the wire that encircled the chicken yard. |