August, 1893.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



113 



Then I took the other end of the rope and 

 climbed a small tree a few feet from the stub 

 and fastened it so that the stub could not fall 

 in the direction that it leaned. We then 

 cut several poles and propped the stub on all 

 sides as high as we could make them hold. 

 After this we cut a larger pole with a crotch 

 at the top and leaned it against the stub, this 

 pole reaching within four feet of the nest. 



All my preparations being made I now 

 proceeded to climb the large pole, the Owl 

 watching me all the time. When I got with- 

 in a few feet of the nest she dropped back 

 out of sight and did not show up again. Be- 

 fore reaching into the nest I took the pre- 

 caution to put a glove on my hand, knowing 

 that Owls have pretty good claws. At the 

 same time I reached into the nest the Owl 

 reached up and grabbed me by the finger 

 with both claws, I promptly pulled her out 

 and gave her a toss and reached in again 

 prepared to take out an egg. I was doomed 

 to disappointment, however, as the nest was 

 empty. I was a good deal surprised, as it was 

 fully two weeks later than when I found the 

 nest with young last year. After all this 

 work I thought I would leave the rope for a 

 few days to see what the Owl would do, 

 hardly thinking it would return to an empty 

 nest after being so rudely thrown off. At the 

 end of a week I returned and found the same 

 Owl staring down at me with the same sur- 

 prised expression. This time I was in better 

 luck and found four fresh eggs and three 

 dead mice in the nest. I confiscated the 

 eggs, leaving the mice for nest eggs, and 

 three days later took two more eggs from the 

 nest. 



Passing by the nest about two weeks later 

 I saw the Owl again and was very much sur- 

 prised to find four more eggs, slightly incu- 

 bated. These I took against my wife's most 

 vigorous protests, as she thought I ought to 

 be satisfied with one set from this pair of 

 birds, but Saw-whet Owls do not nest in 

 every stub, and I thought a bird in the hand 

 was worth several in the bush. I have not 



been past the nest since and do not know 

 whether the Owl kept on laying in the same 

 nest, but shall visit it in the spring and hope 

 to find her at home. It was surprising how 

 the Owl returned to the nest after being 

 thrown off at least five times and robbed of 

 her eggs three different times. Each time 

 she followed the same course, crouching to 

 the bottom of the nest and fighting for her 

 treasures, and after being thrown off would 

 dash past within a few inches of my head, 

 trying to frighten me away. 



I took a set of Red-bellied Nuthatch in 

 much the same manner as the Owls' nest. 

 It was in a shaky fir stub, about twenty feet 

 up, and would not begin to bear my weight, 

 so I took along a boy weighing about sixty 

 pounds. I cut a small fir sapling, which 

 reached nearly to the nest, and held it up 

 against the stub while the boy scrambled up. 

 He then rested on the top of the sapling 

 while he whittled out the nest and took eight 

 fresh eggs. In taking a set of broad-winged 

 Hawk from a huge birch it was necessary to 

 carry a twenty-five foot ladder a mile. Two 

 fresh and handsomely marked eggs made 

 this a very satisfactory piece of work. The 

 way of the collector is hard and fraught with 

 many difficult and dangerous climbs, but 

 when success has crowned your efforts it is 

 pleasant to think how some of your treasures 

 were earned. Fred B. Spaiildiiig-. 



Lancaster, N.H. 



Bird Notes from Western North 

 Carolina. 



July I St, of the present year, I took an 

 excursion to Craggy, a large mountain near 

 Asheville. Following is a list of birds ob- 

 served on the mountain : Black- throated 

 Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green \\'arbler. 

 Arcadian Flycatcher, Wood Thrush, Caro- 

 lina Junco, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Tit- 

 mouse, Indigo Bird, Bluebird, Mountain 

 Solitary Vireo and Robin. Robins and 

 Juncos were the only birds at the summit of 

 the mountain. 



