HINTS ON CLIMBING. 17 



compartments, or with movable boxes for the easy 

 reception and safe carriage of the eggs. In many 

 cases, particularly when the nests of cliff-building 

 hawks and eagles are the object, a stick or knife 

 should be taken as a weapon against the attacks of 

 the infuriated owners. There is so small an extent 

 of the coast of the United States, at least upon, the 

 Atlantic border, where steep and lofty cliffs occur, 

 however, that instruction in the work, either of scal- 

 ing or descending them is somewhat superfluous in 

 the education of the American ornithologist. In 

 England and Scotland, on the contrary, every natu- 

 ralist needs and obtains much of this knowledge and 

 experience. 



A few words in regard to climbing trees, and se- 

 curing nests and eggs from inconvenient positions 

 may not come amiss. I agree with a late newspaper 

 paragraph on this point, when it condemns climbing- 

 irons ; "the feet get cramped and tired out, the legs 

 become stiffened with pain, and the shock to the sys- 

 tem occasioned by climbing is made doubly worse 

 by the use of the irons. Never attempt to use them 

 on a hard-seasoned tree without bark, nor a limbless 

 tree that you cannot reach around; if you do, ten 

 to one you will land on the ground below before 

 any great height is gained. Unless your nerves 

 are strong, never look down, nor higher up than is 

 2 



