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198 THE CONDOR Vol. XVI and fear that I was able to strap on my climbers and thud up the straight trunk below her till my hand was actually within five feet of her. All she did was to peer at me wide-eyed and bob slowly from side to side. But this was too close even for her, and she sailed across to an adjoining tree. She cer- tainly was the incarnation of trusting tameness or stupidity,--call it what you will. The new perch made photography impossible, but as we sat watching her we were treated to a glimpse of her morning toilet. Contorting herself into every conceivable position Fig. 58. SPOTTED OWL: THE IqEST WAS A I?OT- ?tOLE SIXTY-FIVE FEET ABOVE THE OROUND, she shook her feathem into perfect place and carefully preened away every frayed feather tip. There was some- thing ludicrous in her every action. Even in the midst of her toilet there were sudden periods when Morpheus seemed to overpower her and she would doze off, only to awake with a start a few moments later and continue the performance. Her move- ments were much more gen- tle than those of the horned owls. The lack of their ear tufts and yellow irides also gave her a far more agree- able expression, although I must confess that certain startled expressions,--when one did succeed in startling her,--seemed unpleasantly lynx-like. When she moved along a limb her every move- ment suggested a parrot, re- ally a striking resemblance. The next thing was to reach the nest in order to photograph the young, and here our troubles began. It was a good example of the difficulties of judg- ing distances in a big country. We guessed the cliff as one hundred and fifty feet high and a block of stone on its brim as perhaps twenty feet square. The latter turned out to be as big as a two-story house, while the end of our two hundred foot rope writhed sickeningly seventy feet above the ground when we lowered it from the brim. It did not even reach the nest. A tree that we dropped against the base of the cliff, after much perspiring axe work, also fell short. A ledge just below the nest proved unnegotiable even for the goat of the party,--who shall be nameless. All this meant one thing: more rope and another long round trip.