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 out; so that wheu I slipped and fell back, which occasionally happened, as it was raining hard and blowing a gale, it jerked up tight on o but could not get n ont. The two ends of the iron rod were bent around behind the bark as the rod became too long. About two hours of experimenting were necessary to figure out this combination, the reverse of everything being very simple while coming down, which took about five minutes. Twenty-five spikes eight inches long, and a small hand axe were also taken along (in a satchel with an egg box) and driven into the s{ump in a zig-zag as shown in Fig. 4, each spike being about two,feet higller than the last; twenty-four spikes were needed and I co, rid not have got the eggs with twenty-three only, so that it was "cutting it rather fine", but the estimated height was forty feet; it is advisable to take more than'fCiv&='xtra spikes, especially as they cost only a cent apiece. The iron rod of course is used to lift the rope up ahead while ascending, branches being cut or knocked off with the hand axe, which was looped to the wrist most of the time toprevent dropping it. On the south side (where the nest was) the stump was so rotten that the spikes when driven four inches into the wood, pushed right out when my weight was put on them, so climbers were useless; on the north side they just would hold my weight and that .was all, .but two pulled out on the way down. The whole combination is absolutely safe and I could repeat it now in twenty minutes. It is hardly more dicult than going up and down stairs. The stump, a cottonwood, was about fifty-five feet high and surrounded by ash trees of the same height, in a large swamp of about 100 acres one-fourth mile from the Illinois river and four miles south of Kerby. The swamp is heavily timbered with large cottonwoods and smaller deciduous trees of other kinds, and these waving violently in the wind finally produced a sensa- tion that was probably like sea-sickness, but deep-breathing stopped it very quickly.' Also, when about ten feet below the nest the old birds appeared for the first time that day -(tbe nest was located the day before by seeing one bird fly to it vhen the other came out and flew away) and set up all kinds of "cat-calls" that very quickly dispelled any renainlng dizziness. The nest was about fifteen inches deep, the floor of it being boat-shaped,. about ten lushes long and five inches wide, and chipped out of the soft sap wood, so that its length was parallel with the side of the tree. The day before I staid near it for about an hour trying to devise some way to reach it and during this time the birds changed places once and occasionally hammered inside the nest, but did not throw anything out. The ground below was covered with fresh ch.i. ps but the entrance was old and dark colored. One bird, probably the male, made most of the noise, while the other seemed very much subdued and depressed, and the same was noticed around a nest that I found in 1901. In each case the noisy bird was first heard, apparently about half a mile away and approaching very swiftly with its loud, clear calls; then lighting on a tree near by and keeping up a soft, conversational "clu-clu-clu, clu-clu-clu", for several minutes till the other bird came out and flew silently away, when number one flew to the nest and looked in (while clinging to the outside just below the entrance) and then back out again and all around forsixor eight times before going in. The soft notes are like "chuck" with the hard "ck" taken off and I have heard the same complete combination several times, apparently in about one place in another large swamp, but cannot find any nest, yet feel sure that a nest must be there as all of the conditions are just right for it. The four eggs were about one-fourth incubated. It was rather dicult to reach half way around the tree and cut out the hollow, and it is very probable that if my father had not in the past given me endless instruction in all kinds of knots, the nest would never have been reached. Some oologists talk about hiring climbers, but I not only cannot get anyone to climb a tree, but find it necessary to go alone, as anyone who goes along in case of accident, throws so much "cold water" that it completely extinguishes my desire to climb. It might be well, if any large limb were to be encountered, to take a sharp hand saW.--CI-IARIE$ W. BOWIES.