Jan., 1901 1 
THE CONDOR 
5 
stroke with my g^un-barrel, I was sur- 
prised to see a small bird flit downward 
and away among the willows, though I 
had presence of mind to catch her in 
the farther limit of the “twilight noon” 
of the swamp woods. Stooping to 
examine my prize, I realized that Deji- 
droica auduboni stock was soaring sky- 
ward, and depositing the mortal remains 
of Mrs. auduboni in my collecting bas- 
ket, I made haste to ascend a neighbor- 
ing stem, as I feared the one holding 
the jrrize might bend under my weight 
length I stood on terra firma below with 
my treasures safe and sound. In 
descending I measured the .stem with a 
two-toot rule, and found the distance 
from the ground to be eighteen feet. 
The fork containing the nest was in a 
main stem, upright, a number of feet 
below the leaf-bearing part of the tree, 
so that the nest was exposed quite fairlj^ 
to view. 
The nest is figured in the accompany- 
ing illustration. It stands two and one- 
fourth inches in height, and averages 
Photo by Prof. M. /. Elvod. 
Nest and^ of Audubon' s IVarb/er 
and spill the contents of the nest before 
I reached it. 
When about half way up to the nest, 
I had to strap the stem I was climbing 
to the one containing the nest, and thus 
with little difficulty 1 was enabled to 
reach the prize and gaze into its recesses. 
Five eggs! My trembling hand could 
barely transfer them one by one to the 
cot. on of the c<l!ec'.ing can, luit at 
three and one-fourth inches in diameter. 
The rim of the cavity averages two 
inches in diameter, and is somewhat 
smaller than the diameter of the space 
below. The depth of the cavity is a 
trifle more than an inch and one-half. 
The exterior of the nest is made of 
coarse materials, such as weed-stems, 
grasses, and bits of vegetable down. It 
has a nice lining (f horsehair on soft 
