

HE * OOLOGIS 



Vol. V, 



ALBION, N. Y., OCT. & NOV., 1888. 



No. 10 & 11 



A Nest of the American Osprey. 



Editor Oologist : Having read in your 

 valuable journal the experiences of many 

 collectors, I have been seized with an in- 

 satiable desire to immortalize myself — tern- 

 porially, at least — by relating my experience 

 in securing a set of eggs of the American 

 Osprey. 



One delightful day in the latter part of 

 May, 1884, in company with three of my 

 pupils, I set out for "Two Mile Beach," 

 about three miles from Cape May City, N. 

 J. We walked to Schellenger's Landing, a 

 mile distant, then rowed somewhat over a 

 mile through the sounds and across the inlet 

 and then walked the balance of the way. 

 "Two Mile Beach" is a typical South Jersey 

 sea beach, with plenty of low sand-hills, a 

 few dwarfed cedars, sweet fern bushes here 

 and there, and an excellent quality and 

 copious quantity of healthy, sociable, insinu- 

 ating, always-with-you mosquitoes^ From 

 the top of a sand-hill half a mile distant we 

 could see the unmistakable nest at the top 

 of one of the cedars. On nearing it we could 

 see that it was tenanted for the year and 

 that the family were at home. The nest 

 was about fifteen feet from the ground. The 

 boy whose reputation for climbing stood the 

 highest attempted the task. He could get 

 far enough to reach the bottom of the nest, 

 but could not be encouraged to get so as to 

 reach into the nest. After his failure the 

 other boys in turn tried their skill at climb- 

 ing, but with no better results. What was 

 to be done? I wanted the eggs — felt that 

 I must have them ; but I had always thought 

 it to be a poor cow that could not beat me 

 climbing a tree. I must try my hand re- 

 gardless of the future reputation of the cow. 

 Hat, coat, vest, and shoes came off, a fish- 

 line went into my pocket, and I began to 

 climb, I easily reached the point attained by 

 the boys, but to get further than that was 

 certainly difficult. Everything seemed to 

 be in the way, and nothing seemed to offer 



any support; but after cutting and breaking 

 a number of twigs and small branches and 

 pulling away a number of large sticks from 

 the nest, by an extremely vigorous effort I 

 obtained a higher foothold and balanced my- 

 self right in the base of the nest. Then, as 

 the nest was fully four feet in diameter, I 

 must reach out half of this distance and over 

 the edge of the nest. All this time the birds 

 were getting all too familiar, but the boys 

 with clubs, poles, and hats frightened them 

 so that the annoyance was not serious — to 

 me. Finally, after pulling away all the 

 sticks I could and working my hand over as 

 far as possible, I could just feel an egg, but 

 could not possibly reach two inches farther 

 so as to get hold of it. Then I found a 

 crotched stick eight or ten inches long, and 

 after two or three attempts, hooked around 

 one of the eggs and brought it so that I 

 could take it out. Then I held one end of 

 the fish line and dropped the other end to 

 the boys at the foot of the tree, who tied on 

 the little pail that I had made from a bak- 

 ing powder box, filled it with cotton, and I 

 drew it up, put in the egg and let it down. 

 Then I let the other one down in the same 

 way. They proved to be the handsomest 

 pair of eggs of the Pqndion that I ever saw 

 of a very true oval shape the regulation 

 cream ground and brown markings quite 

 evenly and regularly distributed, and with 

 just enough evidences of incubation to 

 show that the two constituted the full set. 

 Another row of a mile or more, a few nice 

 weak-fish and crabs taken by the way for a 

 change, a tramp home, an excellent apetite 

 for supper — and, now, two beautiful eggs to 

 recall all the pleasant experiences of the 

 day whenever I look at them. Who would- 

 'nt be a collector? 



. C. Le R. W., Scranton, Pa. 



