Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1896-02-20


favorite family with biologists, largely
from the endurance, daring and nerve
requisite in scaling cliffs and lofty trees
to secure their eggs, which are often,
us in the case of the golden eagle, beau
tifully marked. This grand eagle sell
dom attacks the plunderer of its eggs,
though it is unsafe to anger the ma
este bird when its nest contains young.
The eggs are two, and sometimes three,
large, and show great variation in the
markings of purple, lavender and rich
brown, blotched or suffused over the
surface of the shell. In California,
where these eagles are most numerous,
a lofty live oak tree is frequently Sc
lected as a site for the huge nest of
sticks, with its lining of Spanish moss,
used by the birds year after year for
generations. A ledge on cliff is also
a common resting place, and out in Wy
oming an eagle has found perfectly
safe place to raise its young on the fat
top of a giant rock. The nest is in plain
view, but is inaccessible.
The California condor-a bird with a
sweep of wing ten feet from tip to tip,
and the largest bird of fight in the
world, not excepting the great Andes
condor-is a species of much interest
TO biologists from the extreme rarity
and value of its eggs. This condor is
becoming extinct, like the great aux;
and, as if it had forecast of its impend-
ing doom, it resorts to the most pre-
cipitous mountain, where, on some
craggy and perhaps inaccessible steep,
it deposits its single egg of pale, green
ish blue in a cave. But seven eggs are
known in collections, and the value of
one considering the probability of the
great birds early extinction) is very
great. More than 81, 500 has been paid
for a single egg of the great aux, of
which there are 6S eggs in existence.
America can claim two-one at Vassar
college and one at the academy of nat
ural sciences in Philadelphia. The lat
ter collection held for many years
among the rarities an egg of the Cali
fornia condor, but it mysteriously dis
appeared a few years ago, and it s sup
posed some scientific kleptonlaniac
thought it no sin to transfer the treas
ure to his own collection, where he is
holding it for rise in price.
Information as to the nesting habits
of the California condor has been ex-
ceedingly limited, and until 1889, when
an egg was taken for II. r. Taylor, ed
itor of the Nidiologist, no eggs had been
FOL cir1a ha 'E0c Tho @olr Of 1,sx
egg showed the nesting time to be early
in May, and that but one egg is laid.
The collector secured the great egg after
hazardous climb down rope, which
he had fastened to a bush on the bluff
above. The condor's egg was found ly-
ing in a hollow in the cave, with few
feathers for nest. The condors had
been frightened off by the discharge of
the collectors gun, and fortunately did
not return while he was in the cave. He
had not come prepared to carry any
eggs, but taking off his shirt he wrapped
the egg in it and lowered it to the hot
tom of the cliff, himself following it
safely.
Mr.. Walter Z. Bryant, for many years
curator of birds in the California acad-
envy of sciences, showed what a co.,
lector may endure for science on one of
his expeditions to Lower California.
Guadaloupe island, lying $50 miles off
the coast of Lower California, was al
most an unknown territory to bird stu
dents, and he determined to visit it,
The island is uninhabited, and vessels
do not usually pass near it, so it was
some time before he managed TO secure
passage on a freight schooner. They
landed him with a supply of provisions,
agreeing to return for him in week.
The week passed, but the schooner
came not, and Mr.. Bryant found him
self marooned. He had collected large
lot of rare specimens, and discovered
several new species of birds. From
never having seen the face of man, many
of the birds could be caught by hand.
Delightful as the location was for the
enthusiastic ornithologist, the vanished
supply of provisions made his position
on lonely island unenviable. He was
reduced to dining on shellfish and such
birds as he could secure, and did not es-
cape to the mainland until three weeks
afterward, when the schooner returned
to the island and took off the naturalist
and his specimens.
The nests of nearly all birds are most
interesting, and in them the oologist
finds much to study and admire, from
the tiny, lichen-covered, downy home
of that fairy, the humming bird, to the
gigantic structure of the fish hawk, or
osprey. One of the most curious of
nests is that of the California Ntit,
cunningly woven of moss, dov ard
lichen. 1t is pensile, like long purse,
with a tiny round entrance hole near
the top for the bird, which is not one
tenth as large as its wonderful nest
San Francisco Examiner.