Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-29
THE CRESTED FLYCATCHER
HUNT FOR RARE BIRD IN PENNsYL-
vANIA FOREST.
Discovery of q Nest Occupied By q
Powerful ReDtile-Excit.
ing Episode.

among the many happenings which DeIei
Mr.. Charles Dennison Kellogg in his sum-
mer study Of birds this was related by one
Of his party and is worth repeating.
Among the many birds which we saw
and heard at our camp at Rock Hill, Pa,
says the narrator "were two great crested
fycatchers. We could hear them singing
in the tree-tops, and sometimes see them
dart swiftly at insects, but, hunt as we
might, we could not find where they were
nesting. One hot afternoon I heard a
whistle from Mr.. Kellogg, which meant
hurry and started for the spot from
which the hurry CALI seemed to come.
lat the far end of our little valley, where
our tents were pitched, in corn field, and
beside dead tree whose roots were deep IN
the water of the creek, could see Mr. kei-
logg waving his hand. AS fast as 1 could
travel with my city-bred feet over ploWed
land and between corn rows, got to the
spot. AS l came up he said:
"'Do you see that hole up there"
81 looked to the top of the tree, and about
twenty feet from the ground l could see
hole partly hidden under canopy of poison
ivy.
The Discovery.
GAS l was wading down the creek, look
ing for nests Mr.. Kellogg said, I looked
I'D at that tree, and saw about two feet OF
something black hanging out Of that hole,
threw stone at it, and, to my surprise,
the black end drew inside and 1 think 1t is
a snake robbng a nest. l am going to try
and catch 1t if l can. You stand right here,
take this stone and watch the hole, and if
he tries to come out just throw at him ana
he'll go back. / want to go to the tent for
a ladder, bag, a rope, saw, an AK and
a few other things.
"Off he went. and [ almost broke my neck
watching that hole.
When Mr. Kellogg got back with all
his apparatus he climbed to the top and cut
away the poison ivy, and made an examna-
ton to see if there was any hole other than
the opening in view by which the snake
could have crawled out. After satisfying
himself he carefully fastened the open
mouth of the bag over the hole and deftly
sewed it around the tree with a needle,
which was a part OF his outfit for trapping
that snake.
"When the bag was tight he sawed the
part of the tree off below the rotten place
and dragged it to the eapm. He then
pounded the outside, hoping to drive the
snake out of his hiding place, but no snake
came forth, and not even a sound l then
said:
MAYBE he isn't in there. after ALL
"'He's in there unless you let him crawl
out
"'He didn't get out of that hole,' was
my retort
"'Then he's in there
The Glistenfng Reptile.
mr.. Kellogg then began to chop the
limb near the hole and in moment broke
through the rotten wood; and peep dis
closed the black and glistening body of the
reptile. We poked sticks in, but not a
bulge How to persuade him to move was
now our problem. For moment we were
puzzled then Mr.. Kellogg burst out laugh
ing and said. Watch that hole a minute.
I'll soon have him out
Then poke something in it. I said. L
don't want 1t to crawl out while you re
gone, and that hole is big enough for him
to do it
so he found a stone and plugged the
hole, and as 1 held it 1 could feel the
springy body of the snake press it like rub
Der. In a moment Kellogg returned with
some gun cotton and flash powder which
we had for making fashlight pictures.
Laughing at what was soon to give Mr..
Snake the surprise of his life, he poured
the powder in the hole, stuffed in the cot
ton and touched 1t with match.
Instantly it exploded, and this time the
ugly inmate lost his composure. expressing
his feelings with a loud hiss He began to
wiggle out into the bag, and the way he
filled that bag showed him to be no Cleo
patras pet, but a whopper fit for a menag-
erie Afterward we found his length was
seven feet two inches.
Fate of the Mother Bird.
Glow we got that bag cut away from the
tree with the ever active snake in it is too
long story to tell here; but when 1t was
finally disposed Of we broke open the tree
to see what had induced the snake to go
inside. A few blows with the ak and the
tree lay open: and behold! 1t was our crest
ed fycatcher's nest. the one we had so
long hunted for! Three eggs were there,
beautiful whitish brown eggs dotted all
over with reddish spots. A tiny hole in the
end of each showed what that snake had
had for final relish to his meal and the
bunch in his ugly side seemed to say that
the mother bird had filled what was to him
an aching void.
LAS we carefully lifted out the bunch of
grass and twigS which had once been a
shapely nest, we had one Of our greatest
surprises. Books on ORTHODOXY say In de-
scribing the great crested hycatcher and
his habits that these birds are said to put
cast snake skins in their nests. When we
read this we wondered if it fact or a
fairy tale But as We carefully examined
our find, to our establishment we discovered
mixed all through it pieces large and small
of cast skin.