There was a bird about camp called the "Nut-cracker" and I believe in some places known as "lark's Crow" (Nussifrage Columbrana) that for a nuisance I believe could not be equalled. In action, in size and something in appearance and rasping voice he much resembled our jays. They were in great numbers about our camp and were impudent fellows and seemed determined to get into everything. Mr. H. W. Henshaw was with us that summer collecting natural history specimens for the Smithsonian Institute. He was quite anxious to find the nest and eggs of this bird. I supposed from their abundance this would be a matter requiring little effort, but I found I was mistaken. I made it my special part that summer to locate a nest of these birds and was constantly on the lookout. I often went out with Mr. Henshaw in the morning when he would start on his day's round but generally lost out after the first hour. He was an athlete in size and finely proportioned and hardened to the work by constant practice, and could walk the legs off me in an hour's travel. I would then strike out for myself but was always looking for the Nut-cracker and trying to locate his nest. One day I saw him fly away from a hole some fifteen feet up in an old tree stump, the limbs having fallen away. This looked encouraging so I climbed up and found a nest but no eggs. I reported my find to Mr. Henshaw that evening and he was pleased with the prospects and said we would go together in about a week, and by that time we might find eggs in the nest. I had marked the place well and we had no difficulty in finding it. Mr. Henshaw did the climbing this time and thrust his hand in the hole but found no eggs. "Wait a minute though," he said and thrust his hand down in the hole again, but brought it out in a hurry and the blood was dripping from it. He suggested I make a forked stick such as every boy knows who has ever twisted a rabbit out of a stone wall or hollow log, and he twisted the thing out which proved to be a mountain rat, something entirely new to me. It was a rat in every way I had known them but had a bushy tail like a squirrel. We took it to camp with us and the skin went away with his other specimens to the institute. This is commonly called the bushy-tailed rat but is designated Neotoma Cinera Orelestes by the zoologist.