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6 THE CONDOR VoL. VII How could we ever secure a good series of pictures at such a distance from the ground? It looked impossible at first, but a careful examination revealed a rare arrangement of nests and surroundings. If we could but hoist our equipment there was no question as to photographs. Eight feet below the aerie the trunk of the tree branched and spread in such a way that we could climb to a point just above the nest on the opposite limb. We strapped the camera in a crotch that seemed built for the purpose, with the sun coming from the right direction. The rub came in focusing the instrument. One hundred and twenty feet is not such a dizzy height when you stand on the ground and look up, but strap yourself to the limb of a tree and dangle out backward over the brink. No matter how strongthe rope, there's a feeling of death AT THE BASE OF THE HAWK TREE to the world. creeping up and down every nerve in your body the first time you try it. The eggs of some hawks differ widely in marking, but the two we found in the cottonwood year after y ear were always of a bluish white tint, with pale lavender shell markings. The mother cradles her two eggs just about the first of April before the first buds begin to swell on the cottonwoods. The spring of z9o? the young birds hatched on April ?oth. The picture of the birds in down was taken on May third. The third photograph was taken on May z8th, when the heads were still covered with downy white but the bodies were well leath- ered out. The fourth picture of the series was taken on May 24th when the young were al- most full grown (frontispiece). On the first day of June both the young hawks left the nest. This makes the period almost two months to the day from the time the eggs are laikl till the youngsters make their debut in- We made a close study of the red-tail's home in the tall cottonwood. He was always a successful hunter. In all our visits we never saw the time when his larder was empty. Nor did we find that we had to resort to the chicken yard for food. There was plenty of wild game. On the first visits we found the remains of quail and pheasants in the aerie. One morning we saw the mangled body of a screech owl; almost a case of hawk eat hawk. Later iu the season when the banks of the Columbia overflowed, and covered most of the surrounding country, the old hawk did not abandon his own preserve. He turned his attention entirely to fishing. Where