106 
THE CONDOR 
V 06 . XII 
dead pine and, perching in one place, began to call the female. I heard her 
answer with a note like the squeak of a mouse but could not tell from what direc- 
tion it was coming. After ten minutes of this he suddenly became silent and flew 
over several trees into a short-leaf pine whose branches were weighted down with 
masses of twigs and cones. I could not see where he entered but presently he flew 
from a clump on one of the lower branches. All excitement I climbed the tree with 
my rope and after some maneuvering was able to reach and investigate the clump 
but found no nest tho I cut off the twigs one by one to make sure. This was very 
tiresome work but I felt sure the nest was in that tree so descended and hid under 
a tree near by. Soon the female began to call again. Then the male came and 
fed her and I saw him go. Climbing up once more I searcht another bunch, found 
Fig. 30. NEST AND EGGS OF THE OLIVE WARIiLER; A CLOSER VIEW OF THE NEST 
SHOWN IN FIG. 29 
nothing, and came down to wait again. Not to drag the tale out further, it was 
not until three o’clock, and a large part of the tree lay on the ground that I spied a 
blade of grass about three feet above me, and on pushing my hand thru the thick 
cluster of twigs flusht the female. The tiee was not a very large one and I had 
shaken every branch and jarred them with my foot, but until I practically toucht 
the nest she had stayed on. Incubation was fresh. As this was my first set since 
1899 I was much elated and forgot in a jiffy my tired muscles. After packing the 
eggs I cut off and lowered the entire cluster in which the nest was hidden. It 
must have weighed all of seventy-five pounds and formed a green ball about three 
and one-half feet in diameter. The nest was invisible except when the twigs were 
parted. The female liopt about within a few inches of my hands as I removed the 
eggs, uttering one of her characteristic notes very softly. 
