144 



THE OOLOOIST 



so I figured that either this was a 

 complete 2nd nest or else an incom- 

 plete delayed 1st setting. 



I instructed him, empliatically, not to 

 go near it till the eleventh, on which 

 date I would be on hand, rain or shine. 

 With that I hung up the receiver and 

 shortly "turned in" to be tortured for 

 the remainder of the night by dreams 

 which told of broken eggs and torn 

 up nests. 



On the morning of June 11th I was 

 off shortly after sunrise and on reach- 

 ing my destination I found my man 

 ready to accompany me. The nest 

 was a mile away, he said, but I think 

 I never traveled a more elastic mile. 

 The details of his find, as he related 

 them to me, were about as follows: 



He had been seeing the female bird 

 repeatedly all winter as he traveled 

 to and from his wood-lot. She was 

 most frequently seen unattended and 

 appeared very tame. About the middle 

 of May he began to search for the nest 

 and spent hours following up old 

 brush fences and beating through 

 acres of spruce woods. It was rarely 

 that he saw the bird now and all at- 

 tempts to follow here were useless, for 

 she seemed to have an uncanny way 

 of vanishing, at what seemed, the crit- 

 ical moment. 



In the immediate vicinity of the place 

 where she was supposed to have her 

 nest, was a small back pasture, sparse- 

 ly covered with tiny spruce and fir 

 seedlings, six inches to three or four 

 feet high. It was in the heavier 

 spruce woods which surrounded this 

 pasture on three sides that Mr. Long 

 had done most of his searching. On 

 the fourth side the clearing was sep- 

 arated from a dense growth of large 

 beech trees, by a brush fence, the 

 same being sorely in need of repair. 

 On June 9th he went back to patch 

 up the weak spots and stepping out 

 about 20 feet into the clearing to pick 



up a pole, he walked over two small 

 spruces growing very close together. 

 As his foot touched the bushes there 

 was a thunderous roar and Mrs. 

 Spruce Hen, the elusive, jumped about 

 three feet in the air, and landing five 

 or six feet to one side, squatted down 

 with spread and quivering wings and 

 never budged an inch, but kept up a 

 constant squealing whining. 



Peering under the bushes he saw 

 the nest and four eggs. He immediate- 

 ly left without so much as touching 

 them, and when, on looking back he 

 last saw the bird, she had pulled her- 

 self together a bit and stopped her 

 noise, but she was watching him de- 

 jectedly. 



Now we are approaching the spot, 

 highly expectant, and I had my 

 camera ready for all kinds of imagi- 

 nery pictures of Mrs. Grouse and her 

 treasures. As I parted the bushes, all 

 nerved for the expected roar of wings, 

 I was disappointed at not finding the 

 bird at home, but the eggs, still four 

 in number, were safe. On examina- 

 tion it was found that these were cold 

 and wet, it having rained a little the 

 previous night. It was now about 9 : 30 

 a. m. and we hung about till near 

 eleven o'clock, hoping she would put 

 in an appearance. In this we were 

 again disappointed and after securing 

 some photos of the eggs and nest, I 

 reluctantly withdrew with the four 

 precious beauties safely packed. 



The nest was a slight depression 

 at the base of a small and well rotted 

 birch stump, and was admirably con- 

 cealed by the low-growing thick 

 boughs of the twin spruces. The de- 

 pression was lined with dry beech 

 leaves and a few feathers from the 

 birds' breast. About the center of the 

 nest and scarcely covered by the 

 meagre and loose lining of leaves, I 

 was amazed to discover the rough and 

 rounded surface of a large embedded 



