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Title
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Sidney, Banner County, Scotts Bluff, July 30-Aug. 9, 1911
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Date
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July 30-Aug. 9, 1911
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Creator
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Frank Shoemaker
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Description
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Sandhills Narratives
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Identifier
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27135
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Transcription
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11 we could not reach; but as we were descending I chanced to see one of the birds entering a hole on the ledge where we had been standing a moment before, and we went back to investigate. We had examined the holes along this ledge, and far back in this same hole had seen what we supposed to be some small mammal, too far in to reach. More careful observation now showed it to be a swift, and we undertook to get it out, using sticks which had been generously shed by a Krider’s nest above. A little careful poking started something, and before we realized it a swift had shot by like a streak of light., There was another inside, however, and this we managed to reach and get in our hands, where it was many, many removes from the handsome creature it is on the wing; the white parts of the body were dingy and soiled, and the creature was alive with “vermin.” So after a casual examination, and after borrowing a few samples of its lice, the bird was released, taking with it the wraith of another illusion. We then examined the nesting cavity, which had evidently been used this season; some of the birds flying about appeared to be of this year’s brood. We found pseudoscorpions, mites, mallophagids; and best of all, Dr. Wolcott found a minute, wingless beetle. When this was noted we set about a careful examination, and on this and a succeeding visit secured 22 specimens. It is a tiny, brown, degenerated, parasitic thing, about one-twentieth of an inch long, and it took us over three hours to collect them – three hours of unpleasant work, for we had to reach in with our bare arms to get the refuse material about the nesting cavity, and the while mass was full of minute dry spines from the prickly pear, which we remembered frequently for many days. How did they get there? Carried by bird or mammal, and why? The wind was blowing sharply, and down on our knees on the narrow and delightful time of it going over this stuff, which was as dry as powder and as corrupt as time could make it, and which the frisky breeze tossed into our faces a hodful at a time. But it is almost certainly an undescribed species, and we were anxious to collect as large a series as possible. In addition to the insects taken in the nest, there were numerous slate-colored ticks, some of them as much as one-eight of an inch in length, crawling about the surface of the rocks, and of these we collected a number. They probably infest some of the inhabitants of the cliffs, as they were found also in the masses of guano with which many of the holes were filled. White-throated rock swifts were noted also later in Bull Canyon, 14 miles west, and about buttes below the Hogback Mountains, 8 miles north of Harrisburg . In 3d Canyon we found a nest of the rock wren with young birds. The nesting site was a hole in a pile of rocks, only a few feet above the bottom
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Rights
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Is Version Of
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