56 



THE OOLOGIST 



feet from the ground, but as the tree 

 was shaky and leaned over the Spav- 

 inau river, on an angle of about twenty 

 degrees, I was not very ambitious 

 about tackling it. I stood and regard- 

 ed it for some little time wondering 

 whether the set was worth the danger 

 when the female bird flew up to the 

 hole with something in her mouth 

 and was greeted by about five lusty 

 youngsters, so near grown that they 

 were able to crane their heads out of 

 the nesting hole. Seeing this, I turned 

 away resolving to try a little earlier 

 next year. 



In 1914, early in April, I found a 

 female Red-bellied digging out a hole 

 in a dead black jack in the woods and 

 waiting two weeks I returned to see 

 what she had for me. I found the 

 nest deserted, however. Then I start- 

 ed to search through the woods for 

 another nest. Finally I found it, but 

 the nest was quite inaccessible. It 

 was within an inch of the top of a 

 dead black jack nearly forty feet up. 

 I climbed up about two-thirds of the 

 way but the tree shook so that I gave 

 up trying to go further. This tree 

 leaned over a gulch on an angle of 

 about fifteen degrees, which naturally 

 made things much worse. I was 

 loathed to give the nest up, however, 

 as I felt sure it had eggs. Finally I 

 hit upon a scheme of lowering the 

 tree with ropes after cutting it down. 

 At first it seemed preposterous to any- 

 one who hears of it, but it came very 

 nearly working out just right. With 

 the help of Mr. J. A. Burekle. I 

 climbed the tree and tied a heavy inch 

 rope around the top two limbs about 

 six feet below the nest. Then we 

 wound the other end of the rope 

 around a young maple on the hill 

 above, and with a few blows of the 

 axe cut the tree nearly down. Then 

 Burekle pushed the tree slightly and 

 I let the rope loose little by little. 



and the tree began to fall, so slowly 

 and gently that there was little dan- 

 ger of the eggs even becoming dented. 

 By slow degrees we lowered the tree 

 vv^ithin six feet of the ground. We 

 were elated; the tree was falling so 

 gently there could be no danger and 

 the scheme seemed a success. But 

 then suddenly something happened; 

 the tree instead of continuing to lower 

 by degrees, swung around to the right 

 and struck the ground with a crash. 

 We had no guide ropes on either side 

 as we would have had, and the tree 

 instead of dropping straight down- 

 ward as expected, lunged to one side 

 and turned over. It broke in three 

 pieces and we found the wreck of 

 four eggs. So near to success and yet 

 so far away! 



The next year I tried again, but 

 found a nest just too late. It had 

 young half grown. 



Late in April, 1916, I saw a nice hole 

 in the underside of a leaning hickory 

 stub about twenty feet from the 

 ground. I rapped on the tree and the 

 female came out and flew to a nearby 

 tree. A week later I came back and 

 climbed up to the hole. It was too 

 small to admit my hand so I just cut 

 a hole in the other side with my 

 hatchet. It was hard chopping but at 

 last I got the eggs, — four lovely white 

 ones perfectly fresh. The female was 

 very much interested in the destruc- 

 tion of her home and actually flew to 

 the nesting hole and entered while I 

 was at work two feet below it. 



William Plank. 

 Decatur, Arkansas. 



BULLETIN OF PUBLIC LECTURES. 



Department of Education of the City 

 of New York, Borough of Queens, an- 

 nounce the following public lectures 

 to be given in that city. Nature lov- 

 ers will do well to attend all of these. 



Monday, March 26th.— Prof. Silas A. 



