Mar., 1902. 
THE CONDOR 
33 
top. 
Continuing niy search for the nest of 
the marsh hawk, I had not gone a hun- 
dred yards from the site of the grouse’s 
nest, when a second female Columbian 
sharp-tailed grouse lumbered from my 
feet. (I forgot to give the technical 
name before, which is Pedioccetes phasia- 
yiellits coliimbiamis.) This nest was 
among upright rose-stems and nettles; I 
remember the nettles particularly, for 
every time I reached down to take out 
an egg, my hand was scratched, and it 
was poisoned for several days. This 
nest was open above, and as I hurriedly 
scanned the contents, I was sure I 
counted fourteen eggs. This time I felt 
like an escaped convict, but circum- 
stances were so favorable that I felt im- 
pelled to pack the eggs. In case I was 
interrupted by anyone so low-minded 
as to overlook the needs of science, I 
was prepared with a permit to collect 
anything at any time for the state uni- 
versity museum; and of course these 
would be for the university museum. 
My fourteen embryonic chickens had 
increased to twenty eight, all fresh. 
This nest was made as the first, in a 
cavity six inches across and two inches 
deep, entirely surrounded by the up- 
right stems. 
The morning of May 29 .seemed to be 
favorable for further quest of curlews’ 
nests, so taking the same course I had 
followed the preceding morning, I soon 
was met by the watchful male who had 
first entertained me. Determined to 
follow in this instance to the last extre- 
mity, in about twenty minutes I had the 
male feinting at me from all sides, the 
last stage in the proceedings, and pres- 
ently I espied the female brooding 
over her charge, lying as fiat as possible, 
with head and bill lying on the ground 
in front of her. Flapping to her feet, 
she ran limping and fluttering over the 
ground for thirty or forty yards; then 
she joined with the male in cackling 
protests at the despoilation of her house- 
hold. The nest was among scant grass 
blades, beside a pile of dried cow man- 
ure. The only material was a few 
pieces of coarse grass stems and several 
lumps of dried manure, somewhat larger 
than peas, their use being apparently 
to hold the eggs in place in the nest. 
The cavity was eight inches and six 
inches major and minor axes, two inches 
deep. The four eggs were placed as usual 
with the small ends together in the 
middle of the nest. They were far ad- 
vanced in incubation. The pattern of 
coloration was dark green, with large 
blotches of dark brown, and blackish 
spots, the markings being more numer- 
ous at the larger end, and on one or 
more of the eggs the markings at the 
large end were nearly confluent. 
Having found one nest of the long- 
billed curlew, it is difficult to locate an- 
other in the same pasture, for the owners 
of the first nest will follow the distur- 
ber, making frequent feints, and the col- 
lector will be unable to tell whether it 
is the owner of a new nest or the pair 
that has been despoiled. I have known 
a pair of curlews, whose nest I had de- 
spoiled, to follow me three miles, 
feinting at me as if I were on the first 
trail of their nest. So I returned home, 
and on the same afternoon I selected a 
pasture in a different direction. After 
walking about half a mile in the pas- 
ture, I attracted the notice of a male. 
As usual, he cackled overhead, and 
alighted near me. Keeping at a brisk 
walk, I found this nest in about twenty 
minutes; in fact, I found it before I was 
prepared for it, not expecting to chance 
upon it for another hundred yards at 
least. It was near the middle of a 
gentle slope, made between a tuft of 
tanzy and a pile of dried cow manure, 
of coarse pieces of weed stems and pel- 
lets of manure. These eggs were far 
advanced in incubation, but were nicely 
prepared with pancreatin. 
It happened that all my nests of the 
long-billed curlew this season held eggs 
about ready to hatch. Duties connected 
with my school kept me in when 1 de- 
sired to be in the field. Good sets of 
eggs should be taken between the i8th 
