THE OOLOGIST 



4S 



up and away instead of keeping to 

 the ground. The nest in question was 

 found while I was searching for the 

 Curlew's and Sandpiper's nests. It 

 WSLZ in an open situation, quite ex- 

 posed, with nothing to mark the site. 

 It was made flush with the surround- 

 ings, of grayish dried grass. The 

 cavity was two and one-fourth inches 

 across the top, and one and one-half 

 inches deep. In general appearance 

 this Longspur's nest greatly resembled 

 the work of a Horned Lark. There 

 were three eggs, and as the female 

 sat until I was within ten feet of the 

 nest, it seemed they were well incu- 

 bated. Three eggs is a very common 

 complement, four being found less 

 frequently than three. 



Nest No. 11. May 28. Long-billed 

 Curlew. — Of all the pleasures of the 

 northwestern prairies, give me the 

 quest of the Curlew's nest. Montana 

 has plenty of big game, but for me the 

 very gamiest of them all is the Long- 

 billed Curlew; not gamy from the 

 cportsman's viewpoint, for I never 

 killed one as game. To the uninitiated 

 the premeditated finding of a Cur- 

 lew's nest is an achievement unwor- 

 thy of mention, but to one who knows, 

 it is the acme of outdoor craft; if you 

 can't accept this statement, try the 

 feat for yourself. To sit at dusk at 

 some secluded watering-place, wait un- 

 til the deer comes to drink and then 

 bowl him over may be a doing worth 

 vv^hile to the gamehunter; but go out 

 on the open prairie, locate a pair of 

 Curlews, and find the nest, not stum- 

 ble on it accidentally, — then you are 

 a sportsman worthy of the name, for 

 in doing it you will learn more of bird- 

 craft than the books have ever told. 

 And yet ,it is simple enough when you 

 have once learned how, and thereafter 

 the day when you can go a-field for 

 Curlew's eggs becomes a pleasant an- 

 ticipation, and the results thenceforth 



serve as the brightest of memories. 



Let me see — where was I? Oh, yes, 

 I was beginning to tell about this nest 

 of Long-billed Curlew. It was on a 

 broad expanse of bench, say two miles 

 wide and three miles long, certainly 

 plenty of territory for investigation. 

 Now, there are two ways of hunting 

 the Curlew's nest, one of which is to 

 tramp forth and back, here and there 

 over the area, trusting to luck to lead 

 you onto a nest. I used to do that, 

 and I never found any nests. Suppose 

 we divide up this two miles by three 

 miles into strips sixty yards wide, and 

 travel up one strip and back on the 

 next, searching each strip, — we have 

 traveled one hundred seventy-six miles 

 and then haven't found any Curlews' 

 eggs. That way doesn't pay, for no 

 sitting Curlew will rise from her nest 

 with the observer sixty yards away 

 and she can't be seen on the nest at 

 that distance. The other of hunting 

 the nest, — well, if you will look over 

 the back files of your OOLOGIST you 

 will fiind detailed directions I once 

 divulged on this subject. How did I 

 happen to learn the secret? I must 

 confess that I found my first Curlew's 

 nest quite by chance, though I knew 

 it was on a certain quarter-section 

 of the prairie, for a friend had told me 

 it was there. Meanwhile I had 

 searched the benches three years with- 

 out results, and when I ultimately 

 found this first nest, through the sug- 

 gestions of a friend who didn't know 

 how to find one himself, I left the 

 eggs in the nest intact and made a 

 study of the owners' actions. I ap- 

 proached the spot from almost every 

 point of the compass, time after time 

 and day after day, until I knew pre- 

 cisely bow the male would act in 

 every instance of my approach; the 

 female would remain sitting until I 

 Avas within fifty feet of her, some- 

 times v/aiting for me to get as near 



