14 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



might have failed, curiosity and the love of solv- 

 ing a mystery kept the boy on the alert. Small 

 wonder, then, that Shan found a passion in bird's- 

 nesting. 



Partly because Bull's livelihood depended to a 

 certain extent on his knowledge of the habits of 

 game birds, the old pot-hunter had looked at first 

 with amusement and then with favor on his little 

 nephew's interest in birds' eggs, and, from time 

 to time, he would bring nests home to him. As the 

 years passed by and Shan developed into a sturdy 

 lad, well able to go bird's-nesting on his own ac- 

 count, Bull realized that his own interest in the 

 collection of eggs was little less strong than that 

 of the boy. He became as eager as Shan to put a 

 black pencil mark in the Encyclopaedia as a sign 

 that another species had been identified. The 

 eggs of over eighty species were in Shan's col- 

 lection, well housed in home-made boxes of aro- 

 matic cedar, with leaves of wild thyme to keep 

 out insects. 



It was not unusual for Bull to make a few blaze- 

 marks along a trail to some nest that he had dis- 

 covered during his long tramps through the woods 

 or which he had noted in his solitary boat-trips 

 along the upper waters and tributaries of the 



