98 The Ottawa Naturalist. [November 



bird's acquaintance at any time. Shyness is one of the hawk's 

 peculiarities, to say nothing of it's retiring habits, especially in the 

 nesting season. The bird is seldom seen during the period of incuba- 

 tion, except when the nest is in danger. If the male bird is present at 

 this time the flicker-like alarm notes are a sure indication that a nest 

 is close by. Experience (I use this term with calm deliberation) has 

 driven me to the conclusion that the male bird is seldom at home 

 while the female is incubating, but is off on some foraging expedition, 

 in many instances miles from the nest tree. Having become quite 

 familiar with the breeding haunts of this species and meeting casually 

 with the male in the open country, I have been able to form some 

 estimate of the erratic movements of the smaller parent in the nesting 

 season. Looking for sharp-shinned hawks' nests is tedious work, 

 especially in black spruce bogs of any size, but this is the only satis- 

 factory method of meeting the birds. 



The early stragglers appear during the first week in April, but 

 migration depends largely on the season. Some pairs start domestic 

 duties early, as nests have been built by the end of April and con- 

 tained full sets by May 8. The young have been hatched in the first 

 days of June, but these, of course, are exceptional records. The eggs 

 are usually laid by May 24, and the young are out of the shell about 

 three weeks later. The number of eggs laid is three to six, usually 

 four or five. They are richly marked, and there is an endless variety 

 in a large series of sets. 



Unfortunately the sharp-shinned hawk makes heavy raids on 

 our song birds, the white-throated sparrow, chickadee and the warblers 

 being the principal sufferers. I notice that the bird selects a mossy 

 stump or squirrel's nest as a perch for plucking it's victims. Again 

 and again I have stumbled across masses of bird feathers adhering to 

 moss on the ground and on stumps in evergreen woods. Occasionally 

 the hawk loses a feather or two in it's wild flight. These are all tell- 

 tale signs that a pair of these destructive birds are tenants in the wood, 

 and a thorough search always reveals the nest. Where a family has 

 been raised the woods are almost stripped bare of song birds. The 

 majority of nests have been found in black spruce trees, a few in 

 balsam and an occasional one in hemlock, cedar and pine. The 

 height varies from ten to sixty feet from the ground against the base 

 on horizontal branches. The nest does not resemble the bulky 

 structure of the crow as some authorities aver, but is easily distinguish- 

 able from the latter by the shallow platform of interlaced spruce twigs. 

 A large number of nests have been built over old foundations, but as a 

 general rule the bird constructs a new nest each season. The usual 

 nest of this hawk is a frail affair of twigs and is sometimes lined with 

 flakes of bark. The tree chosen is on the outskirts of the woods, or at 

 the edge of any clearing or opening in the middle of the woods. A 



