Sept. 1886.] 

AND OOLOGIST. : 


distance down the opposite side along the brow of 
a hill and came to a large wild cherry tree situated 
between the hill and swamp, where carefully but 
firmly balanced on the topmost branches was a 
well made nest. This was avery difficult place to 
get the eggs from, for they were fully three feet 
from the edge of the nest, which was overhang- 
ing and very large, but finally we succeeded in 
getting the set.of three eggs into a stocking and 
brought them safely down. The same old rail 
was propped up under the nest, that aided us in 
our previous climbs, and was the means of our 
getting to the nest this season. A short distance 
away there was another nest placed in a very large 
elm several feet in diameter, and without a limb 
for thirty feet. Our long coil of rope now came 
in play and it did not take long to rig a boatswain’s 
sling, in which we hauled our friend to the first 
limb, thence to another several feet higher, where 
he fastened himself to a large limb above, leaving 
slack rope enough to reach the nest, which was 
out several feet from the trunk on a horizontal 
limb at a great height from the ground. This was 
reached, and after tearing away a large mass of 
sticks hanging loosely from the nest, he was en- 
abled to get over into it and pack the three eggs 
which it contained. He was let down slowly 
from his high perch, and after taking our lunch 
and a refreshing rest near a spring, we continued 
our walk along through pine groves for some dis- 
tance, until we reached open fields once more, 
which were skirted until a large chestnut tree was 
reached. An attempt was made in ’85 to ascend 
to the nest, placed seventy feet from the ground, 
but proved useless. Having a coil of rope with us 
now, we are supplied with the necessary means of 
reaching it. It was the most difficult one we had 
yet attempted, but rigging a boatswain’s sling our 
friend seated himself in it, and was hauled up to 
the limit of the rope. Thenresting a few moments 
he cast the rope over a large limb twenty feet 
higher and fastened it. Then by the aid of rope 
and scientific shinning he mounted tothe nest and 
worked himself over into it. This occupied nearly 
an hour, but the climber generally feels amply re- 
paid to find a handsome set of three eggs, even if 
it takes two hours to reach a nest. Packing the 
three eggs he let them down by aid of a stout cord 
and then descended slowly by aid of the rope to 
the grouud. Clouds were forming,and the wind 
increasing, and it looked decidedly like rain. Re- 
packing our eggs, we made notes, and left for a 
distant part of the colony, where we knew of 
several accessible nests, but before we reached the 
main road it commenced to rain heavily, and our 
“ waterproof” hunting coats were soon soaked 
through. There was nothing for us to do then 
but to tramp home, for it was not safe to climb 
wet trees, and it would not do to get any farther 
south if we wanted to get home that night. We 
know of onenest placed on the top of a large dead 
pine in dry woods a mile or more from water that 
we could visit by making a slight detour. 
After walking several miles we entered the 
woods and soon saw it through an opening. The 
bird arose from the nest as we drew near, and 
whistled loudly overhead, accompanied by its 
mate, which had been perched near the nest 
pruning its feathers. Ascending to the structure on 
the opposite side to that taken last year, we found 
it was reached much easier, but it was a rotten 
old hulk ofa tree, and trembled considerably when 
ascended. We found it held a set of three,— 
same number as last year, but differing greatly in 
size and coloration. Those laid in’85 were longer 
and not so heavily blotched, being evenly dis- 
tributed over the surface, and of a lighter shade 
of brown, while the three taken this year were 
very round and heavily splashed on the crown 
with very dark chocolate, and on one of the eggs 
the markings are confined to the larger end, the 
remaining portion being dirty white, resembling 
many Red-shouldered Hawk’s eggs that I have 
seen. These packed we prepared for a five hours’ 
hard tramp, for Le were yet sixteen miles from 
our friend’s house. Just about dusk we met a 
friend with a horse and wagon who was going our 
way and who very kindly carried us to the house, 
which was reached shortly after 8 p.m., soaked 
and chilled through, but after a change of 
clothes we sat down to a hot supper. Then it 
was pleasant to talk over the day’s work, laugh 
and joke at some of the experiences we had had, 
and think that we had added another pleasant 
trip to the list, with still another to look forward 
to. Let not the reader suppose that the sets 
above recorded were all that we secured, but be- 
ing typical “climbs,” it would be a needless waste 
of space to enumerate our other experiences. 

Large Sets of Eggs. 
Mr. F. L. Farley, of St. Thomas, Ontario, re- 
ports finding, in 1885, twenty-one eggs of the 
Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus erinitus,) in 
a single nest, ina hole in an apple tree. The 
eggs were of five different sizes and he thinks that 
several females must have deposited them. 
A somewhat similar case was the finding of 
seven eggs of the Chipping Sparrow (Spizella 
domestica), in one nest last summer. It is very 
unlikely that one female laid them all.—J. P. W. 
