514 THE FERRUGINOUS ROUGH-LEG. 



EA(jLH-LIKE birds arc still scon soaring alxiul llif la\a ranges and the 

 more desolate gorges of the l'ii<itliills in eastern Washington, hnt the arch- 

 buzzards are no longer so i)lentifiil in the West that close and comparative 

 study is easy. Our experience of this bird in the State is limited chiefly to 

 the taking of a set of eggs in L'helan C'unnty (then Okanogan Cnunt\- i in 

 the spring of 1896. 



On the 4lh day of .Vpril, while ])r(iceeding along "'the graile," or 'granite 

 cut road. n<irth of Chelan, 1 glanced upward and saw a large black raptor 

 eyeing me calml\' from the middle of a commanding cliff, wliere she was 

 evidently busy with domestic arrangements. The situation was so bold and 

 the road s(_) well tra\'eled tliat the bird-man scarcely sle])t in the interxal jiend- 

 ing examination on the 7th. The biixls were again sighted on this occasion, 

 and gave such clear evidence that the nest was occupied, that a return was 

 made on the loth with an equipment of ropes, gun, etc. 



'J'lie nest was a bulk\- platform of sticks lodged midway on a projecting 

 rock of a granite cliff, 125 feet in height. The clift' was practically ])erpen- 

 dicular, indeed ox'erhung slightly for the space abo\e the nest, so that the latter 

 enjoyed practical immunity from western showers. A small ledge led toward 

 the nest from the side of the cliff, l_)ut fell short some twenty feet, and its 

 precarious footholds required to be supplemented b\' ropes from the outset. 

 Making fast a se\ent\'-foot line to a ])ile of rocks on the brow of the cliff, I 

 let the end fall where llie ledge played out, and worked o\-er to it b\- the aid 

 of another rope suspended further along the cliff. Bare-footed and armed 

 with an egg-scoop — a bag of muslin at the end of a ten-foot pole — and with 

 a bowline at the waist, I clung and swung, spider-fashion, until the nest came 

 into full \'iew just below me. ( The "'bird-man" was a ])reacher-inan then, 

 and a little reticent as to his bird-nesting ])roclivities — hence the foolhardi- 

 ness of a single-handed attempt. ) Recollections of Sindbad and the Roc came 

 to mind at this juncture, but he is thrice armed who hath his cause just. 

 Science (willi a large S) will l)olster a weak heart, and it will conveniently 

 justif}' that pride of conquest which makes an oological collection a volume 

 of personal Iiistor}- rather than an exact text-book in ornithology. Beside 

 that the Rough-legs were arrant cowards. Scream they did like Eagles, but 

 not once did they venture within gun-shot, and they sat most of the time 

 moping hel])lesslv on a pine-stub two hundred yards awa}-. 



The nest apjieared at close quarters to be an ancient affair. Indeed, its 

 foundations were probably older than the county road which wound beneath it. 

 Its outlook included a \ariet\- of wild seenery. Black Butte cut the dead level 

 of the great Columbia terrace on the north, like a shark's fin on a summer sea. 

 The mightv river itself rolled six hundred feet below, and the Douglas County 

 "breaks," witli their shimmering gray-green bunch-grass levels and their 

 frowninu brown bastions of basalt, fillcfl the eastern horizon. Sni;dl wonder 



