May, 1901 I 
THK CONDOR 
sailed over me and slowly up the hill, 
over the nest, and on out of sight. 
I followed with camera, climbers etc., 
immediately. After maneuvering up 
and down hill for the best site to plant 
the camera, the spot was selected. 
With the sky for a back-ground I de- 
termined to have a fine picture of the 
eagle leaving her nest. Setting the 
shutter for 1-25 of a second, I threw a 
rock and shouted at the bird on the 
ne.st, and waited expectantly. Though 
I had been in plain sight looking at her 
with the glasses while she laid low in 
the nest watching me, she seemed not 
to be frightened but stood up in the 
ne.st, silhouetted against the sky, shook 
herself thoroughly and sailed out across 
the canyon. The bulb was pressed and 
on developing the plate that evening no 
eagle was to be seen. This was disap- 
pointing after such an excellent chance, 
but we live and learn. 
On the 12th ofMarch a visit was made 
to a nest built last year in which one 
egg was hatched. As I was reasonably 
sure of a set of eggs, and as the nest 
was but a mile or so from the wagon 
road, the start was made with both 
cameras, a 4x5 ‘Midget’ and a 5x7 
‘Premo’. I had had made especially for 
this event two iron braces to nail onto 
the limbs, with a slot for the camera 
screw, and had intended to take a pic- 
ture of myself up the tree taking a pic- 
ture of a set of eagle’s eggs in situ. 
This would undoubtedly have been in- 
teresting but here again my plans 
balked. One of the camera screws had 
been left at home in the pocket of an 
old pair of pants. 
Therefore but one camera could be 
used at a time. The result of the pic- 
ture is seen in Plate I. About an hour 
was spent in the tree climbing up and 
down to pull aside limbs and twigs that 
obscured a full view of the eggs. Then 
it was nece.ssary to take the camera 
down and climb back after the eggs. 
As it was only' one o’clock I hied me 
over the hills and far away to another 
pair of birds which had caused me much 
61 
hard climbing in a rough canyon to find 
their nest. Two years ago as I lay 
resting, after losing sight of two pairs 
of birds, the female suddenly swooped 
by me up to her nest. Search as 1 
would no nest was found. La.st year 
one day' about noon found me on the 
ridge high above an eagle slowly circ- 
ling about. As the view was perfectly' 
open I watched him and soon saw be- 
low him the female flying up the can- 
yon from around a little point. 
This confirmed my' suspicions and a 
long, close search revealed finally' an 
old dilapidated nest in an oak tree. 
After looking at it a few minutes, as a 
forlorn hope I climbed to it and was 
greatly astonished to find two eagles’ 
eggs. This year I headed for the same 
nest, but before reaching it located a 
new nest in a pine tree one-quarter of 
a mile above it. This contained but one 
egg, slightly' incubated. After gazing 
at it long and earnestly it was placed in 
my basket, as the possibility of getting 
another was not worth the time and 
hard work of going for it. 
Slipping and sliding thro’ sage brush, 
scrubby trees and poison oak the spot 
was finally' selected as the best available 
from which the picture in plate If was 
taken. This shows fairly well the 
nature of the country where mo.st of 
my nests are found, though it would be 
shown better were the t\Vo small pines 
not so much to the front. On my re- 
turn journey a tree containing two nests, 
from each of which I had taken eggs in 
former seasons, was passed. 
They were both deserted but the 
birds were seen sailing about their 
usual haunts. Bright and early the 
next morning my way led for miles up 
and down ridges and canyons with 
cameras loaded with plates and rosy' an- 
ticipations of two more sets awaiting 
me. The fir.st nest was reached aljout 
12 o’clock. This was in an old pine 80 
feet up, where two birds were hatched 
last y'ear. That fact, in my estimation, 
augured favorably for this y'ear. With 
camera over my shoulder, up I climbed 
