THE OSPREY. 



18 



PRICE AFTER AN OLIVE SIDED FLY- 

 CATCHERS NEST. 



During the past June a jolly party of ornithologists 

 met by good fortune in the Sierra Nevada Mountains 

 in El Dorado County, Cal. : W. W. Price and Mr. 

 Nutting, of Stanford University, were in the moun- 

 tains chiefly after mammals, but not overlooking good 

 things in other lines ; H. W. Carriger and C. Barlow, 

 were stopping at the stage station on an outing, while 

 R. H. Beck and cousin were camped at a cabin in the 

 woods near by. Price had arranged an ideal camp 

 beneath a grove of Maples on the banks of a creek a 

 mile away, accessible by a trail through the woods. 



Those of The O.s- 

 prey's readers who 

 know Mr. Price will but 

 envy the party over 

 which radiated his char- 

 acteristically jolly good 

 nature. There was 

 never a better quality 

 or better measure of 

 good nature to the 

 square yard (1) placed 

 in an ornithologist than 

 in ' Billy ' I'rice, as his 

 friends call him, and 

 those who visited his 

 camp could not but en- 

 joy his hospitality. 



It is 'related' that 

 Price was the victim of 

 a cruel joke, somewhat 

 in this wise : All of the 

 ' boys ' were on the 

 lookout for a series (!) 

 of sets of the Hermit 

 \Va rbler. Western 

 Evening Grosbeak, etc., 

 and in a wicked mo- 

 ment, some one said he 

 was sure there was a 

 nest of Podilymbus podi- 

 cfps on a limb of a large 

 Pine near the house. As 

 there were no check- 

 lists at hand, and no de- 

 sire to classify species 

 at that time, it is pre- 

 sumed that 'Billy' 

 thought only of the pos- 

 sible nest. Someone 

 with ideas not as large 

 as many of the trees of 

 that region, had brought 

 up a pair of climbers which were free to all. 



The following day our host, Mr. L. E. Taylor, held 

 an 'ornithological reunion,' and sat us down to a 

 repast seldom equalled in the mountains. When the 

 festivities were nearing the close it was observed that 

 Mr. Price had vanished, and later, the climbers were 

 found to have disappeared, as if by a strange coinci- 

 dence. A search party was at once organized, and 

 the trail taken up. Soon it was announced that Price 

 had manned the irons, and was preparing to ascend 

 to the dizzy heights of the Pine. The camera was 

 quickly brought, and, by the time it was focused, the 

 intrepid Price had gone up the tree almost five feet : 

 when, hearing a suppressed laugh, he turned his 

 head, and we present him as he appeared to the de- 

 lighted natives. "Say," said Price, as he cautiously 

 back-pedaled down the tree, "don't you fellows laugh 

 at me; just label it 'Price after an Olive-sided Fly- 

 catcher's nest.' " 



PRICE .\FTER THE FLYCATCHER S NEST. 



Mr. Price is well known from his ornithological 

 work in Arizona, where he first described the nesting 

 of the Red-faced Warbler, and also from active work 

 throughout California. He recently described a new 

 form of the Pine Grosbeak for California. — C. B. 



A TRIP TO ASSINIBOIA. 



1 ha\e recently returned from m\ fourth annual 

 trip to Assiniboia, Northwest Canada. I traveled 

 several hundred miles with a guide and team, and 

 collected in virgin soil. 



Last year I discovered a nest and five eggs of the 



rare Richardson's Mer- 

 lin ; and this \ear I again 

 visited the locality, 

 made a thorough 

 search of the territory, 

 taking several nests and 

 eggs of this handsome 

 Hawk. The sets con- 

 sisted of three, four and 

 five eggs, and some are 

 very handsome indeed ; 

 some of the eggs are col- 

 ored similar to the Duck 

 Hawk, others are hand- 

 somely blotched with 

 dark blood-red patches 

 in a ring near the center. 

 The eggs are a little 

 larger than those of the 

 Pigeon Hawk, and 

 much more handsomely 

 marked. All the nests 

 I discovered were open 

 ones, built by the birds 

 with sticks and twigs, 

 lined with hay and 

 grass. They were about 

 the size of a Crow's nest, 

 and placed from 15 to 

 25 feet from the ground 

 in Maple trees. The 

 parents were very pug- 

 nacious, and fought me 

 while I was taking the 

 eggs out of the nests. 



I also took sets of 

 Sandhill Crane. Mar- 

 bled Godwits, Sprague's 

 Pipit, Baird's Sparrow, 

 Ferruginous Rough - 

 legged Hawk, American 

 Routrh-legged Hawk. 



American Hawk Owl, Swainson's Hawk, Ducks, and 

 many others. In Michigan, I took one set, down and 

 10 eggs, of Hooded Merganser, and two of Bald- 

 headed Eagle. — Edward Arnold, Ba/Z/f Creek, Afi</i. 



AN EXTRAORDINARY RED-WING NEST. 



On May 25 of last season, I climbed to the top of 

 a Wild Cherry tree for what I supposed to be a nest 

 of the Kingbird. I was greatly surprised to find it a 

 Red-winged Blackbird's nest. It was firmly fastened 

 to a branch twenty one feet from the ground. In con- 

 struction it differed very materially from the usual 

 Red-wing style, being composed of strings, grasses 

 and feathers, much after the Tyraiiitus tyrauniis mode 

 of architecture. 



The tree stands within fifteen feet of a large farm 

 residence, and is fully half a mile from open water. 

 The site is one where I should never have looked for 

 a nest of Af;elains phaniceits. — Is.a.\c E. Hess, Philojll. 



