THE OOLOGIST. 



153 



were unable to reach the places where 

 the birds appeared to have their nests. 

 So in 1901 the party went with a firm 

 determination to secure eggs of the 

 birds. On May 30, our party consist- 

 ing of Prof. Bruner, Dr. Wolcott, Mr. 

 Cary and mysalf, visited the cliff oc- 

 cupied by the birds the year before 

 and found that they had returned and 

 to all appearances had nests, under 

 constru tion at least, in the crevices of 

 the cliff about seventy feet above the 

 base of the perpendicular wall of rock. 

 The home of the birds was a bold 

 convex cliff, forming one wall of the 

 canon and facing to the southwest. 

 On the south side, about two-thirds of 

 the distance to the top, was a ledge 

 upon which rested the last year's nest 

 of a pair of Krider's Hawks and into 

 which Mr. Hunter had longingly 

 gazed, from the top of a neighboring 

 pine, at the two eggs, so near and yet 

 so far. Around this nest and on the 

 west side of the cliff were scattered the 

 nest of the Swifts, as could be seen by 

 the way in which they were constantly 

 darting in and out of the cracks and 

 crevices, keeping up a constant vigor- 

 ous chatting as they wheeled, circled 

 and darted about in the vicinity of the 

 cliff. Their swiftness of wing and the 

 poor footing made the work of collect- 

 ing any for skins well nigh an im- 

 possibility, and it was only after a 

 long-continued fusillade that one lone 

 bird was secured. After various plans 

 of reaching the nests had been dis- 

 cussed, I volunteered to make an at- 

 tempt to climb the cliff. The trunk 

 of a small pine, cut down by Mr. 

 Hunter the year before, lay at the 

 base of the cliff, and when this was 

 erected I was able to ascend about 

 one-third of the distance to a narrow 

 projection of rock at a point where 

 several nests were supposed to be. As 

 may be seen from the photograph, 

 there is a shoulder of rock, but a few 

 feet in width, running perpendicular- 



ly up the side of the cliff and ending 

 in the projection I have just mention- 

 ed. This shoulder was made by a 

 vertical section of the face of the cliff 

 slipping down and still remaining in 

 an upright though rather unstable 

 condition, and it was up the narrow 

 side of this section that I must climb 

 in order to reach the much desired 

 nests above. This cliff consists, as 

 do all the rocks of the region, of a 

 soft sandstone which is rapidly disin- 

 tegrated by the action of the elements 

 upon it. This fact made the ascent 

 far more precarious than it otherwise 

 would have been, since one could 

 never tell when the portion of rock 

 which sustained his weight would 

 tumble away. But while this was a 

 great difficulty, it was also the means 

 which made it possible for me to as- 

 cend the cliff, since I was able, with 

 the small handaxe which I carried, 

 to cut foot and hand holds in the 

 rock and thus gradually make the 

 ascent. 



I think any one can appreciate the 

 task of clinging to the nearly perpen- 

 dicular face of a cliff for the length of 

 time sufficient to cut steps for the as- 

 cent of nearly fifty feet. But persist- 

 ence finally overcame all obstacles and 

 I stood at the top within easy reach of 

 three nests, one of which was still 

 empty while another contained one 

 egg and the third two. The nests were 

 made entirely of feathers, glued into a 

 compact mass by means of the saliva 

 of the bird, and also securely fastened 

 by the same means to the bottom of 

 the vertical fissures in the rock in 

 which they were placed. By this time 

 Dr. Wolcott had climbed by a round- 

 a-bout way to the top of the cliff and 

 let down a coil of rope over the face of 

 the rock to assist me in the descent. 

 Owing to the overhanging nature of 

 the cliff, the rope hung out several 

 feet beyond reach and I was compelled 

 to draw the end up by means of a 



