ORNITHOLOGIST 



—AND- 



OOLOGIST. 



.■jsi.on per 

 Annum. 



PUBLISHED BY FRAXlv B. WEBSTER. 



Estalilislied, March, 187.>. 



.Single Copy 

 in cents. 



Vol. XIV. 



BOSTON, MASS., DECEMBER, 1889. 



No. 12. 



The Dark Side of Collecting. 



Sacces.sful finds and happy endings rliaiacter- 

 ize nearly all the coUectino; experiences de- 

 scribed in the pages of the O. & O. 



In a series of brief sketches I will tell of 

 experiences showing the reverse or dark side 

 of a collector's life, of the disappointments, 

 falls, and accidents that are a part of the lot 

 of every active seeker after oiilogical treasures. 



One cold blustering day in March, 1887, I 

 was prospecting for an owFs nest in some big 

 timber, on Spoon Rivei'. I had previously 

 heard the male hooting, and knew the nest 

 should be somewhere in these woods. Some 

 downy feathers adhering to the edge of a cav- 

 ity in a large .soft maple finally assured me 

 that I had found the i-ight tree. Rapping the 

 trunk with my climbers a Bubo left the hole 

 and flew to some distance before alighting. 

 Sizing up the tree I found a difficult task be- 

 fore me. Straight as the side of a barn was 

 the tiee, the trunk three and a half feet 

 through, the bark so smooth as to furnish al- 

 most no hand hold, and the cavity twenty 

 feet from the ground caused me to hesitate 

 before trying so difficult a climb. But the 

 prospect of securing one more set of valuable 

 eggs determined me. Adjusting my climbers 

 I carefully commenced working my way up 

 the tree. All went well until I neared the 

 cavity containing the nest; here a bulge in the 

 tree necessitated extra caution in climbing for 

 a few feet. I was just considering myself 

 safely over the danger point and foolishly 

 stiaightened up on my climbers to get a hand 

 hold of the edge of the cavity, when suddenly 

 the sharp spurs cut outof the soft wood and bark 

 of the tree, and I went down flying. The tree, 

 a double one, divided at five feet from the 

 ground, and striking in this crotch I tumbled 

 to the frozen earth, striking on my face and 

 head. After the exiiihition of fireworks was 



over I got upon my feet and took an inventory 

 of the damage done. A five-floUar pair of pants 

 badly used up, the buttons torn off my vest, 

 one ankle badly sprained, the skin rubbed from 

 the inside of my legs and from my wrists, the 

 side of my face, neck and one ear scratched and 

 torn, fi-om which the blood was running freely. 

 Going to a creek close by I broke the ice and 

 washed the dirt and blood from my hands and 

 face. The smarting of my wounds now aroused 

 my ire, and I determined to know the contents 

 of that hole in the old maple at all hazards. 

 Striking a bee line to a wood<'hopi)er"s hut a 

 half mile away I borrowed his axe, and return- 

 ing cut a long pole out of which I 

 fashioned an Indian ladder. Elevating this 

 against the side of the tree I was sof)n at the 

 top of it peering into the hole, only to find it oc- 

 cuijied by three downy Bubos and some pieces 

 of I'abbit. The old owls now appeared and 

 showed such an earnest desire to relieve me of 

 a part of my scalp that I made haste to get 

 down and depait from their premises. 



One day in April, 1SS8, I was riding about 

 through a dense growth of young oak timber 

 searching for the second nest of a pair of 

 Great-horneds, from whom I had early in the 

 season robbed a set of two eggs. I finally 

 found the nest, that of a Crow, reconstructed 

 and about twenty-five feet up in a wild cherry. 

 It contained one very young owl, which I did 

 not molest. A short distance from this nest 

 I saw a Zebra Woodpecker (Cenlurus caro- 

 Vtnns) fly from a hole in a dead black-oak stub. 

 Dismounting I went to the tree and started up 

 on the run. Having ascended about five feet 

 the bark suddenly slipped from around the 

 trunk, and I found myself on my back gaz- 

 ing up at the stars, though it was midday. 

 As soon as the breath returned to my body 

 I got up, and slowly and deliberately made the 

 ascent, finding four fresh pearly white eggs, 

 which soon caused me to forget the sliaking up 

 that I had received. 



Copyright, 188'.t, by Frank B. Webster. 



