CHAPTER X 



Black Vulture: Cathar'ista Uruba 



IN THE LIMBERLOST 



I AM indebted to Otty Bolds, 

 who owns that portion of the Lim- 

 berlost selected as their happy 

 home by the Black Vultures, for 

 word of their location. Mr. Bolds 

 sent a messenger to tell me that in 

 a big hollow elm tree, of last year's 

 felling, was a nest containing a bird 

 baby as big as a Gosling, but white 

 as snow, and beside it a pale blue 

 egg heavily speckled with brown 

 and shaped like a Hen's, but large 

 as a Turkey's. 



I knew where for three years Turkey 

 Buzzards had nested in a hollow tree on the Wabash River, on 

 Dan Hawbaker's farm, but their eggs were cream-coloured. 

 The blue eggs " sent me to sea." We had no native bird that laid 

 the egg described. If the description were at all correct, it could 

 only mean something unusual, and strays in ornithology are ex- 

 tremely interesting. 



On hearing of a bird that is new to me I think of Pliny's classi- 

 fication of species; "those that have hooked tallons, as Hawkes; 

 or long round claws, as Hennes; or else they be broad, flat and 



123 



THE BLACK VULTURE S FRONT 

 DOOR 



This was bewildering. 



