232 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



Connecticut and six rods wide. I saw a Golden-eye some way 

 above and attempted to get up to it by running when it was under 

 the water. At my second run the snow gave way, throwing me 

 headlong and running my gun barrel nearly its whole length into 

 the snow. After getting my shooting iron in order my game was 

 gone. Proceeding farther down I saw two more and after several 

 hours I succeeded in shooting one. I took out my line (which I 

 always carry to throw over game in the river) and attaching a 

 club, threw it over the duck but it was not heavy enough to hold 

 the specimen. Pulling in my cord I found it twisted and knotted 

 into every conceivable "tie up" imaginable and before I could 

 get my line in working order the bird was some one-half mile 

 below. Overtaking it by a high clay bank and seeing it near the 

 shore I attempted to descend — slip, slip, and down I went into the 

 mud and soft clay and did not stop until I fetched up in aqua 

 fortis. Fortunately it was not deep enough to seriously wet me. 

 Before I could extricate myself from the clay my bird was again 

 below me and out of reach. 



Determined to have it as it was a splendid male specimen, I 

 followed to the end of the "ope" (three miles), thinking I 

 should certainly get it then, but what was my disappointment to 

 see it disappear under the ice ! The first male specimen I ever 

 got I swam into the Connecticut river after in December when 

 there was ice on the shore. 



July 15, 1869. 

 Last week I heard of a man in Massachusetts who had found 

 the nest of the Great Horned Owl with two eggs. I thought I 

 would see if I could not be as smart as some folks in Maine who 

 go wading through swamps in a drenching rain to get the egg of 

 the Broad-winged Hawk! I immediately dispatched a man for 

 them so as to be sure of getting No. 48 for G. A. B. But judge of 

 my disappointment after sending a man fifty miles, twenty in a 

 wagon and thirty in the cars, to find that Amherst College had 

 got the start of me and procured the eggs ! It is the most difficult 

 egg to get that is to be found in this section. I think I mentioned 

 in one of my letters that one of my collectors found a nest with 

 young in it this season. I told him not to disturb it, hoping to get 

 the eggs next year. The first egg I get you shall have. I never 



