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Sept, 1914 THE NESTING O1? THE SPOTTED OWL 195 hole, however, was sixty-five feet from the ground, nothing more was to be seen of the bird, and obviously nothing more was to be done without plenty of rope. So with many a backward glance we set out for the long ride back to civilization. To cap the elimax of the day, we had hardly gone half a mile be- fore we spied a condor circling low with evident interest in a white-marked ledge. Surely this was a day of days! But the condors were destined to disappoint our photographic hopes. When we reached the spot again, after a slow-passing two weeks' delay, we found the birds still circling about the eliif, but a stiff elirob showed the nest- ing ledge to be untenanted that year. For some reason they had not gone to Fig. 56. THE GROUND. SWINGING FROM THE FIR FIFTY FEET ABOVE housekeeping, although clinging tenaciously to the vicinity of their former nesting site. It was obviously their home even in the legal phrase, for it was "the place to which they returned for rest and recreation." But in the ab- sence of egg or young they were rather shy for camera stalking. Nor could they be lured within range of a blind, even by the sacrifice of an antiquated equine offering. Poor "Ted",--a failure even in death! The owls, however, behaved better. For, as Mr. Adriaan van Rossem, Mr. Philip Pierpont and the writer rode up to their home on May 31st, the old bird was sitting in plain sight on the edge of the nest hole with two well-grown