90 



THE OOLOGIST. 



neglected to bring one along centered 

 his affections upon the smaller tree 

 which, by the way, was not so very 

 small after all. It would have been an 

 easy climb for an old hand but pre- 

 sented 84 feet of difficulty to Mike. 

 It was his second experience with the 

 irons and first tree of any size. He 

 worked slowly up the trunk some 25 

 feet, then .paused to rest and looked 

 down. I asked if he felt a wild ex- 

 hiliration of spirits; a sort of glad joy- 

 ous freedom. No, his feelings did not 

 seem to tend that way; they tended 

 toward an insatiable yearning for terra 

 firma. Things also began to assume a 

 different aspect. The distance to the 

 ground already looked as far as had 

 the nest when viewed from said ground. 

 "When the first crotch was reached he 

 had to gaze upward to the nest before 

 he could believe himself less than a 

 hundred feet in the air. This crotch 

 was 35 feet up and formed a bulge in 

 the trunk. Fortunately he could clasp 

 his fingers through the crotch but this 

 ■brought his face tight against the tree. 

 This did not prevent the use of his 

 legs, however, and he walked up until 

 his knees touched his chin. Thus he 

 posed for sometime with rear pointing 

 straight out into the billowly atmo- 

 sphere; then his legs walked down 

 again for he dared not let go and reach 

 for a higher hold. The perspiration 

 dripped from his marble brow and life 

 became a serious thing. Owl's eggs 

 began to lose their charm and he want- 

 ed to come down but, spurred onward 

 by an attack upon his pride, he made 

 another attempt and conquered. The 

 nest was easy by comparison except 

 that the earth receded at an alarming 

 rate. At last he was opposite the nest 

 and not until then did Madam vacate. 

 "Two beauties," was his gladsomecry. 

 He let down the string for the scoop. 

 The lower end dangled 30 feet above 

 the ground. I then remembered hav- 

 ing used a hundred feet of it during 



the winter. Mike possesses a nature 

 philanthropic and a patience infinite. 

 I heard him sigh as he sadly contem- 

 plated the dangling end but, without a 

 word, he descended to where it would 

 reach. To reclimb that 30 feet, bur- 

 dened with the pole and scoop, was not 

 like floating with the current. He 

 arrived, however, and reached with the 

 scoop— it fell short by five feet. Here 

 is where a profane man would have 

 said things but Mike is not profane. 

 He dropped the scoop and by the time 

 he had covered the 30 feet I had it 

 attached to a longer pole. This second 

 upward climb was more difficult than 

 the first owing to the length and weight 

 of the pole but he did it all right. Here 

 he encountered another difficulty — he 

 could not coax the eggs into the scoop. 

 He chased them about the nest for a 

 full half hour with the temperature be- 

 low freezing and a strong wind blowing. 

 "I must give up," he finally wailed 

 and just then an egg rolled into the 

 scoop followed by the other. When he 

 lowered them I found the side of one 

 jammed in but said nothing until he 

 reached the ground an hour later. He 

 was so exhausted that he could not 

 speak and laid down in the snow until 

 I induced him to sit up. As the fatigue 

 wore off his enthusiasm returned until 

 it blazed with old time splendor for he 

 actually had a set of owl's eggs and of 

 his own taking and would not part 

 with it to-day for the best set of Golden 

 Eagle ever laid. 



The reader must not think the above 

 a development of imagination for it is 

 an actual truth in every detail except 

 the name of the chief participant but 

 then, you see, I meet him every day. 



Here is one more of his experiences 

 as a conclusion. Some time last sum- 

 mer he borrowed my climbers to invest- 

 igate the nesting site of a Woodpecker 

 but for reasons that were sufficient he 

 failed to do so. On the way he saw 

 a bird that, from his description, was 



