32 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. IV 
hunted nests of the curlew systemati- 
cally, knows that when you get near a 
nest, say within five hundred yards, the 
first movement of tlie male is to fly 
overhead from somewhere, cackle his 
disapproval, and alight near you, gen- 
erally within fifty yards. Then you 
should turn either to the right or left of 
him, and walk onward; if he - pays no 
further attention to you, j^ou are on the 
wrong lead; but if he arises and flies 
near you again, cackling as before, you 
are getting nearer the object of your 
quest. vSo on this occasion, a male 
came cackling and gave the usual signs 
that his spouse was somewhere within 
a radius of several hundred yards, sit- 
ting on her four large handsome eggs. 
By following my S 3 ^stem, 1 soon had 
the male flying straight at me. I 
should further explain that when you 
are getting near the nest, say within 
three hundred yards, the male begins 
to fly out a long distance from you, 
turns quickly, and strikes a direct line 
for your head. Moreover, he generally 
flies toward the nest, so that the male, 
3 'our head, and the nest are in one 
straight line, and you have only to 
search in the line of his flight to find 
the female flattened out over her treas- 
ures. It is all easy enough, but on this 
particular day the males seemed to be 
more vigilant and jealous than usual, 
and hence I made the mistake of not 
following the clue far enough. Hav- 
ing spent at least an hour in a vain ef- 
fort to find this nest, I crossed into an 
adjacent pasture, where another male 
began to manifest his displeasure at my 
invasion, and was soon flying at me. 
This male led me a merry chase for two 
hours; when it seemed that I should be 
quite near the nest, he would alight 
near me and leisurely glean among the 
scant herbage, apparently quite indiff- 
erent regarding my movements. At 
length I gave up in disgust, and left 
this center for more profitable localities. 
However, several days later I found 
both these nests, with eggs far advanced 
in incubation, after le.ss than thirty 
minutes search when I had caught the 
first clue; I hope to get to these later. 
Disappointed at my failure to find 
nests of the curlew, I went onward 
across the bench, and reached a wide 
irrigating ditch, bordered by a narrow 
growth of weeds and bushes. A marsh 
hawk tumbling end over end high in 
air gave me reason to believe that I 
might find a nest in the bushes, so I be- 
gan to search among the rose thickets, 
h'inding nothing in the rose-patches, I 
gave attention to the lower growth of 
waxberry, along the outer edge of the 
weedy areas. Soon a Columbian sharp- 
tailed grouse fluttered heavil>" from be- 
neath my feet, exposing her nest among 
upright stems of the bushes. It is re- 
markable how open a nest can be, and 
yet seem entirely concealed from view. 
I could easih^ look down and count the 
fourteen eggs in this nest, but had the 
hen seen fit to remain with her charge, 
her youngsters might now be affording 
sport to some of the Sunday gunners. 
It is from long habit as a breaker of 
the game laws, I suppose, that the oolo- 
gist feels a guilty feeling when a chick- 
en or other game bird flutters from un- 
der his feet, revealing her nest nicely 
packed with eggs. Of course I looked 
around, making sure that the thunder- 
ous whirring of her wings had not 
alarmed the occupants of the house less 
than a half mile distant. Then 1 .sank 
to the ground, and prepared to pack 
those fourteen coffee-brown eggs, eas- 
ing my conscience with the thought 
that our game law allows the gunner 
the right to kill not more than twenty 
birds in one da}^ in the open season, 
and I was simply taking mine in the 
egg in the spring while the sportsman 
prefers his in the feather in the fall. 
As I was not out for grouse eggs, I 
should not take another set that daj^ 
and especially one of fourteen. So I 
lifted out the eggs one by one, packed 
them in a cigar box, and made my data. 
Nest of dried grass, scantily lined with 
downy feathers; cavity seven inches in 
diameter, two inches deep, open at the 
