6 4 THE CONDOR I Vol. III thirty feet to the first dead limb which contained colonies, large ones, of a black ant. Between the bites of the ants, the camera would slip around un- der me and impede my progress. My trip up to that nest and back to lerra firma would have been immensely inter- esting to a disinterested observer seated a short distance froin the tree. Jify sole interest lay in getting down as quickly as ants and cainera would let me when I found no eggs in the deserted nest. After getting a picture of this nest and eating lunch the tramp was resumed and about three o'clock I was standing in a small oak tree looking down into my second nest, at two eg?'s which were finally collected after a hard climb. This nest was also in a pine on an- other one of those steep hillsides which seem to be selected so often by the birds in this locality. Owing to brush, trees and slope of ground it was impossible to obtain a full-length v'i'ew of any trees holding nests. Plate II[ ?hows a typi- cal eagle's nest with ,typical background in the distance. The set on the x3th was taken from here. Last year one egg was laid and hatched in this nest. Just as I stopped to look at the nest for the last time this year at 50 yards dis- tance, the male flew to it with a squirrel in his claws. He looked at the nest, called several times, looked earnestly across the canyon, and then, happening to turn around and see me, quickly took wing and sailed away. On the xsth of March I mounted my wheel and started on a 7s-mile ride to visit two nests discovered on a hunting trip a month before. Passing through a narrow valley and over a mountain range four pairs of birds were seen, one pair of which I determined to investi- gate on my return trip, v?hich.,was done. It was high noon when investigations were commenced. The birds were cir- cling about the usual place, the female having evidently just left the nest. Several inviting-looking gulches with but few trees lured me on around one hill after another. As I'd go over a ridge and glance back there were the birds watching unconcernedly, a half- mile away. When my desire for the set of eggs had vanished under the hot sun and rough climbing, the wheel was mounted and the birds still circled about in their accustomed haunt. It
was decidedly annoying, yet no. more
so than to climb to a nest the eagle had just left and find no eggs. This had been ?ny luck the day before at the end of a long day's ride. Think of it; 75 miles and return by wheel to look into an old eagle's nest and the coinposition no different fr m one that could have been reached in an hour from home! The nest was all ready for eggs which would have been mine had the trip been delayed a week. I trust she hatched and reared her young success- fully. An hour before inspecting this nest another one was visited and yielded its two eggs to my' basket. This nest was the kind to dream about,--a regular Taylor-Barlow situation, where step on to a limb and gaze delighted13r at the nest and the treasures contained, therein, 35 feet up with limbs plentifii! enough to serve as a ladder: what more could one want than to haw the small boys of the neighborhood unacq?aintqd with its whereabouts? But this': 'long- felt-want' of Sargents and other ',?aces is notfelt here. Quite the contraryi' Soon after collecting the set I passed. one of the small boys on his way home from school and tackled him on the sub- ject of eagles' nests. He had passed it a week before going up the ridge and had "seen the hen on the nest"! An in- cident of this character reconciles us to many of the shortcomings and disap- pointments we meet with so often, and keeps alive the spirit that draws us to the hills and to the mountains as each .succeeding March comes round. Fred M. Dille, the well-known Denver orni- thologist, has removed to Altona, Boulder Co., Colo., which we trust will prove an inviting collecting field.
