THE OOLOGIST 



65 



long as I was there, showing mucn 

 concern at my intrusion. 



The situation looked hopeless, but 

 I was satisfied that the nest contained 

 eggs, and I wanted those eggs, oh, so 

 badly. My belt was much too short 

 to encircle the tree, and even if it 

 had been long enough it would have 

 been impossible for me to have work- 

 ed it up over the aforesaid tumors, 

 some of which stuck out for a foot or 

 more. Equipped as I was, I do not 

 think the most expert steeple-jack in 

 the world would have attempted the 

 climb. But I was bound to have those 

 eggs, or at least break my neck in the 

 attempt to get them; so I went home, 

 secured a good Indian bow and arrows 

 which I happened to have, a couple 

 of hundred feet of silk bass line, a 

 like quantity of good strong cord and 

 about 100 feet of %-inch Manilla rope. 

 Thus equipped, I again made my ap- 

 pearance on the field of action, at 

 about 1 p. m. Mrs. Kite was on again, 

 leaving the nest at my close approach. 

 She gave a few faint whistles, and her 

 mate joined her instanter. 



Removing the point from one of the 

 arrows I attached one end of the bass 

 line to it and coiled the line so it 

 would run free. Before proceeding 

 further I had to climb two trees and 

 chop off some limbs in order to get 

 a clear space for the flight of the ar- 

 row and line. This accomplished, I 

 let drive, but the arrow went much too 

 low. After about twenty trials and 

 much entangling and untangling of 

 line, the feat was finally accomplish- 

 ed. But when I attached the cord to 

 the line and attempted to draw it 

 through the crotch of the tree, the 

 bass line stuck, and I dared not pull 

 on it very hard. Coiling the line, I 

 climbed a nearby tree till well above 

 the crotch in the cypress, when I had 

 no trouble in getting the line over. 

 After tying knots in one-half of the 



rope, I found it was too short, but 

 this was soon remedied by attaching 

 a generous length of grape vine at 

 the bottom end, when I hauled it 

 through the crotch and made one end 

 fast to a tree. Strapping on my climb- 

 ers I was soon up to the crotch, but 

 here I met with difficulty in getting 

 into the crotch. The rope hung over 

 a slight hump and swung clear of the 

 tree far enough to allow me to get 

 my hands around it, but when I arriv- 

 ed at the hump, which was just below 

 the crotch, it looked like Waterloo. 

 But after resting a bit I brought my 

 climbers into play and finally worked 

 up above the hump and fell into the 

 crotch. I gazed down at the bristling 

 cypress knees below and realized 

 what would be my fate if 1 should 

 fall. All this time the birds had been 

 making vicious dives at me, some- 

 times coming so close that I could 

 feel the wind from their wings on the 

 back of my head. After a good rest, 

 I adjusted my belt and went up with- 

 out difficulty till I arrived at the large 

 limb, growing on the broken stub of 

 which were the young sprouts which 

 held the nest. Here I had to do a bit 

 of ticklish crawling, while the wind 

 swayed the limb in a waj' that I did 

 not like. The wood of the tree was old 

 and brittle and I realized that the limb 

 was liable to split off at any moment. 

 However, no such thing happened, and 

 I soon found myself just beneath the 

 nest. 1 dared not try to get up far- 

 ther, so 1 tip-toed on the swaying 

 limb and could just put my hand in 

 the nest. Two eggs! Taking off my 

 collecting box, which I had carried up 

 swung over my shoulder, I pulled off 

 a piece of Spanish moss with which 

 the nest was festooned, packed thp 

 eggs and lowered them to safety. The 

 ground color of the eggs was a pale 

 bluish white; the larger egg was boldy 

 splashed near the larger end with 



