The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-12-30
RObb|NG NESTS
OF RARE BIRDS
Thrilling Adventures OF
Those Engaged in Col
lecting These Eggs.

Swinging one hundred feet from the
rim of a pricipice more than four
hundred feet high; few days ago an
enthusiastic naturalist descended the
sheer face of a cliff in the Sierra Ne
vada Mountains and obtained the sim
gle egg of a California vulture, the
rarest bird alive in the world today,
says Portland, Ore, dispatch.
Twice on that perilous journey of
100 feet between earth and sky he
took his life in his handsome when
he slipped down over the edge Of the
cliff and for the. first time put his
weight on the slender hempen thread,
and a second time, falling like twin
thunderbolts out of clear sky, the
two giant birds, each spreading wings
at least eight feet, charged him in
midair. Had the rope broken, new
and untried as it was, he would have
been hurled to an awful death on the
| Jagged rocks below. Had he for once
| loosened his grip on the rope while
the great black wings beat about his
head he would have been food for
the vulture ere he could have drawn
one more breath. He could not looS-
en- his hold long enough to draw his
pistol and fire a shot to brighten away
I the birds as they struck at him with
huge talons and buffeted him with
their wings.
When he returned to solid earth
once more he held-in his hand small
black box containing the treasure he
had risked his life to get-a gray
green egg, larger than that Of a goose
or even swan, pitted and marked
over its entire surface with tiny holes
like those scattered over the she'll OF
an ostrich egg. For it he received
when he had shipped it back to an
eastern museum, 800. On the same
trip he climbed dozens of towering
pine trees in search of the rare eggs
of many of the smaller birds that in
habit these regions of great altitude
and the eggs of some of these he sold
but none for such a price as this.
/ Killed by Fright.
In the same week collector, cling
ing to a twisted vine in the heart OF
the Mexican jungle, put his hand upon
poisonous tree snake, Shrank bach
in sudden fright and fell to the bed
of a rocky rayine near by, dying in
stantly. The prize he had climbed 81
high to obtain was the nest of a tiny
hummingbird, scarce larger than {
big thimble, yet with its two pearly
white eggs it would have paid hin
S25 or more.
Every year, with the beginning o.
the breeding season of the. birds, meI
are sent out from all public museum:
and many from the private collection!
of wealthy men, to add to the store
of the worlds knowledge Of the col
lection and the study of rare bird
in UNEMPLOYED quarters of the earth
Baron Rothschild sent party to thu
head waters of the Yang-tse Kianl
river, in China, a few months ago, il
search of the eggs of rare snipe
The expedition was gone severa
months cost several thousand dol
lars and brought back three eggs o
the snipe, absolutely indistinguisb
able from the eggs of other species o
similar birds which are well known
but which were undoubtedly the frs
eggs of this particular bird eve
seen by white men. Very possibl.
they will be the last, for these partiC
ular waders are becoming more scare
with every summer, and the time Is
I no doubt, near when, if science visit
| I. la;, Of oil
trip to the arctic circle 10 do so.
This Egg Worth Money.
) The rarest egg in the world is TIT
egg of the Labrador duck, supposed,
an extinct species, the last known birt
Of that species being one killed b.
Daniel Webster many years ago. VIA
became of these large, powerful birds
the strongest flyers OF all tie duck
} tribe, is something of a mystery
Certain it is that none Of their egg
, have ever been seen by whit
men, unless II be those mysterious
NoTsemen who are said to have beel
; the real discoveries of the continent
Presumably the egg Of the Lahraio
} duck is like the eggs of others OF il
) kind a pale, plain, bJffy cnlored shell
unmarked and not beautiful from tn,
} viewpoint of the DISTINGUISHED or
locker. No price has ever been pu
} on this egg; none ever will be, ant
no collector will ever offer any 70
sale unless some new country 4
} found up around the North Pole
whittier all the Labrador ducks havi
} migrated.
The egg of Steller's duck, a nea
relative of the Labrador duck, i
} worth IS, and few of them are eve
offered to museums or to private CO.
lectors. Eggs Of several of the gees
and the brants, birds that make thei
huge nests on the shores of the Arc
tic ocean, are worth from S3 to $
each. and many are brought back b,
expeditions which go to these reg
gion5 for other purposes. All of tn
swans eggs are worth good prices 4
1.-The collector so fortunate as to conn
upon them in his travels in the IA
north. while the little tree ducks
Istrange, web-footed birds which PEREZ
on branches and make their nests il