Mav, 1893.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



73 



In ten minutes we saw another nest, and 

 Charley brought down a beautiful set of five 

 Crow's eggs. They were fresh and blew 

 easily, and very soon they were packed and 

 we were off again, happy as larks. After 

 some pretty wet tramping we found another 

 nest and then another, but both were empty, 

 and we were just beginning to realize how 

 wet we were when we found a curiosity. 

 We saw a cpieer looking thing in a low tree, 

 and making our way over to it found that it 

 was a dead Crow, which was hanging head 

 down, with one foot caught in a little crotch 

 in a branch. The poor thing was very 

 skinny, and had evidently died of starvation 

 there. 



After that we unanimously concluded that 

 it was lunch time, and picking out the driest 

 log we could find we sat down. It rained 

 steadily, and we were chilled and wet, but I 

 hardly ever ate a better lunch. And as we 

 ate we talked of the 'success we had had, 

 and of the morrow at school and the envy 

 of the other boys, till we got warm over the 

 talk and started off eagerly again. After 

 about half an hour we found another Crow's 

 nest and fi\e more eggs. .^ set for each I We 

 grinned idiotically at each other. Then we 

 came to a thick part of the woods and sep- 

 arated so as to cover the ground thoroughly, 

 walking in parallel lines. Fifteen minutes 

 later I was startled by a resounding yell, 

 " Add, come here ! " I went with a rush 

 and found Charley dancing around in front 

 of a low tree covered with grape vine. His 

 eyes were sticking out, and he was brandish- 

 ing his hatchet wildly at a bunch of sticks in 

 the vines. "Wh-wh-what is that thing," he 

 cried, and as I looked I stared in amazement 

 too, and gave it up. There on the nest was 

 something brown and yellow and black, and 

 over the side nearest us hung what was cer- 

 tainly a flat bird-tail, but staring at us directly 

 over the tail was a queer striped face, with 

 a big pair of hairy ears. The only thing I 

 could think of was a monkey, but monkeys 

 don't have flat tails, and as we jabbered ex- 



citedly the beast itself solved the mystery 

 by turning its head squarely the other way 

 and scrambling awkwardly off the nest and 

 flapping into an adjoining tree, where it sat 

 and snapped its beak at us \iciously. It was 

 an Owl, an American Long-eared Owl, as 

 we found from the book. The thing had 

 simply been facing the other way when we 

 came up and had turned its head to look at 

 us, and then put up its ears. We had never 

 seen one before — that was all. 



Charley was up in the vines in a minute 

 then, and in a minute more was on the 

 ground with five beautiful glassy white eggs. 

 I won't tell you what we did then. It was 

 justifiable anyway. We had come out with 

 fear and trembling after Crow's eggs, and 

 had found not only Crow's but Hawk's and 

 Owl's ! It surpassed anything we had ever 

 read of, and we rejoiced accordingly. 



They were perfectly fresh and blew easily 

 with tiny holes and were soon packed up and 

 we were off again. That ended the day, 

 though. We tramped till five o'clock as 

 nearly as we could tell from the rain and 

 gathering gloom, and then started for home, 

 aiming to get there for a 6.30 supper. Five 

 miles through the rain we went, with drip- 

 ping clothes and tired limbs, creating some 

 surprise as we walked through the city streets, 

 but we didn't mind. I wouldn't stop at 

 Charley's, because I wanted to get home and 

 hurrah, and also because I began to think 

 that it was later than we gave it credit for 

 being, and I didn't want to be late for a hot 

 supper. I wasn't. 



I got into the house at exactly 2.20, to 

 my intense surprise and disgust. We had 

 been utterly fooled by the darkness of the 

 day and perhaps by our own tired feeling, 

 and I thought with indignation of the root 

 I had fallen o\'er. \\'e could have had two 

 hours more but for that measly watch ! But 

 when I got rubbed down and into dry clothes 

 and settled comfortably at the table, with hot 

 coffee and toast which my dear mother 

 stopped her work to prepare, and spread all 



