ORNITHOLOGIST 
[Vol. 7-No. 22 
I7r, 
Climbers and Climbing. 
Herman III was bom in Germany, and 
during his younger days travelled with a 
circus com})any, which developed his mus¬ 
cle, also gave him unbounded .self confi¬ 
dence and courage “ to do ” that we have 
never seen ecpialled. He is a man true to 
himself and friends always, and it was our 
good fortune to have Mr. Ill in our em- 
j)loy from 1H7G to 1881, and we often 
called on him to climb trees that other¬ 
wise would have remained unclimbed, and 
many a pair of hawks would have been 
gladdened by a nest of young, where now 
the shells are s^iread over the United 
States in various cabinets. At the time 
we made use of IMr. Ill he was working 
eveiy week day in a factory, and also run¬ 
ning a farm between times, and yet he 
found time to climb trees for us. Besides 
being veiy strong Mr. Ill was also very in¬ 
genious, as the following little episode 
will show: One evening while riding home 
bareback he noticed in front of him on an 
overhanging slender limb a nest which lie 
saw at once could not be got at in the 
usual way. Quick as thought the horse 
was under the limb with the rider stand¬ 
ing on his liack. At this moment the 
horse esjiied a tuft of grass and moved to¬ 
wards it, while the rider whose liands and 
eyes were upturned, unlike .\bsalom l\Ir. 
Ill measured his full length on the ground. 
The horse was soon hurried back to his 
position, when Mr. Ill jumped up and 
examined the nest which contained — noth¬ 
ing. A good specimen of rapid bare- 
back riding followed until the stable was 
reached. We once went with Mr. Ill to 
get some Barn Swallows’ eggs when he 
climbed up tlie posts and walked over the 
beams like a cat. We trembled as we saw 
liim stc]) from beam to beam so high up, 
and witli his liands full of nests and eggs. 
We begged of him to be more careful or 
he would cert:iinly fall. .Vll warnings were 
met with a smile, and “I guess not, I no 
fall, this is noding.” One evening we 
took Mr. Ill in the carriage and drove out 
a few miles west of Rockville to get some 
Crow Blackbirds’ eggs which were mostly 
in immense elms so peculiar to Conn. 
As on all excursions of this kind we took 
the climbing irons and ropes along, and 
often a hatchet and other implements 
needful. The tii*st nest located was sad¬ 
dled on an overhanging limb forty to tifty 
feet from the trunk of the tree, and at 
least eighty feet from the ground. We 
should not have asked our climber to ven¬ 
ture after this nest, but he made prejiara- 
tion at once to ascend the tree, when we 
brought out the climbing irons and rojies, 
which he would not touch, and any 
proposition to use artificial means was met 
with a smile of derision, he sabring “I 
climb any tree you find.” This tree was 
so large he could but reach about half 
way round it, and for twenty to twenty- 
live feet had nothing but the rough bark 
to get hold of with his fingers. Daylight 
was fast waning and j’et he went up the 
tree without a slip. As he worked his way 
along the overhanging limb we became 
alarmed for his safety and begged him to 
return, but we only got joking answers in 
reply. When he was jiassing the most 
dangerous point as a last warning we said : 
Ill, do be careful : his rejily was, “ Yes, my 
vife she say so ’fore I leave home.” The 
nest was duly reached which we insisted 
on his throwing down and not bringing 
down as he wanted to do. The eggs were 
brought down in safety and in much less 
time than it has taken us to tell it. This 
was probably the most difficult feat in 
climbing we ever witnessed. Mr. Ill has 
climbed hundreds of monstci's of the 
forest for us and never used a climbing 
iron, or ever received a fall. He has the 
nerve, strength and will to overcome all 
obstacles of this kind. We do not write 
this to commend his method, but to show 
what strength and nerve can accomplish in 
climbing. 
