28 



THE OOLOGIST. 



FRED W. PARKHURST, Bath, N. Y. 



impressed on my miud was that it 

 makes a vast difference from what 

 standpoint a thinjj is viewed. On a 

 bright morning of last March, I dis- 

 covered a Screech Owl cosily domiciled 

 in a cavity apparently about eighteen 

 feet from the ground in a silver inaplc 

 in a neighbor's dooryard. As I stood 

 at the foot of ihe tree, after I had 

 buckled on my new climbers and was 

 prepared to ascend to the cavity, the 

 distance seemed comparatively nothing 

 and I congratulated myself on having 

 found a nest of the Screech Owl so 

 easily reached. After 1 had set both 

 spurs lirnily in the bark, however, and 

 was clasping the trunk with both hands 

 and had the caudal portion of my body 

 Ijent out from the tree so that I resem- 

 bled a letter V with the opening toward 

 the trunk, I was positive that it was at 

 least thirty feet to the nest. When I 

 reached the coveted position at last, 

 and had sunk the spurs their full length 



into the wood to guard against falling- 

 while I explored the empty recess, as I 

 ventured to glance to the ground I won- 

 dered how I could have been so de- 

 ceived as to the distance, which was 

 now not less than tifty feet and rapidly 

 increasing. I enjoyed the descent, 

 however, more than enough to counter- 

 balance the depressing effects of the as- 

 cent. Occasionally the spurs would re- 

 fuse to give up their deep-seated at- 

 tachment to the trunk, and I would 

 hang with my knees in the pits of my 

 arms, vainly tugging at my tirmly an- 

 chored feet. Gradually I worked my 

 way down until within a few feet of 

 the ground, when I concluded to slide 

 down the remaining short distance. I 

 had not yet learned the perversity of a 

 pair of spurs on the feet of an inexper- 

 ienced climber, for they took hold of 

 the uneven bark, and befoi'e I could 

 grasp the tree with my hands, my up- 

 per parts were describing the circum- 

 ference of a circle of which my feet 

 formed the center. 



Having begun to form a collection of 

 birds' eggs only last season, though I 

 have been an observer of bird-ways for 

 many j^ears, I made several visits to a 

 grove northeast of town to secure a set 

 of Crow's eggs, and as this was after 

 the experience recorded above, I took 

 along with me a venturesome fellow- 

 crank to do the climbing. We went 

 after working hours and darkness be- 

 gan to settle over the grove ^ hen he 

 made his last ascent, the objective point 

 being a nest about forty feet from the 

 ground and about ten feet out on an 

 obliquely ascending limb. As his first 

 few climbs had not resulted to our sat- 

 isfaction, his expectations were not at 

 the highest when he reached the nest. 

 He slid his hand up into the structure 

 and called out exultantly, -'seven eggs!" 

 Our collecting box was a pasteboard 

 baking-powder box, and into this be 

 packed the set while I offered numerous 

 bits of advice and congratulated myself 

 on thus securing a set which would be 



