110 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



lows : — " While searching for prey, the Sharp shinned Hawk 

 passes over the country, now at a moderate height, now close 

 over the head, in so swift a manner that, although your eye has 

 marked it, you feel surprised that the very next moment it has 

 dashed off, and is far away. The kind of vacillation or waver- 

 ing with which it moves through the air appears perfectly 

 adapted to its wants. It advances with sudden dashes, as if im- 

 petuosity of movement were essential to its nature, and pounces 

 upon and strikes such objects as best suit its appetite, but so 

 suddenly, that it seems hopeless for any of them to try to 

 escape." The nest is usually placed in a pine, about twenty 

 feet from the ground, and is constructed of sticks and lined 



* 



with small twigs and leaves. Eggs usually four, of a bluish- 

 white color spotted at larger end with brown. They are usually 

 laid by the last week in May. 



Buteo borealis — Bonaparte. 

 Red-tailed Hawk. — Mr. Samuels, in " Birds of New Eng- 

 land," says: — "Every one has noticed this hawk up in the 

 air at a considerable height soaring in extended circles, and 

 uttering the oft-repeated cry, ' kae, kae, kae,' as he examines 

 the earth beneath him for prey." I found a nest of this hawk 

 in Boxford, Mass., on the 7th of May. It was situated in the 

 topmost fork of a tall pine-tree, being about twenty-five feet 

 from the ground. It was a very large affair, constructed of 

 coarse twigs and sticks, many of them as large as my finger. 

 It was slightly lined with a few pine-needles and leaves of other 

 trees. In the nest was only one egg, though the number gen- 

 erally laid is three. The egg was just hatching, the young 

 hawk having broken the shell so as to protrude his beak. It 

 must therefore have been laid by the 20th of April. This hawk 

 is very destructive to small birds and to poultry. 



p 



Circus cyaneus — Boie. 



Marsh Hawk, Mouse Hawk. — This hawk is often seen in the 

 orchards and fields, but especially in the meadows and marshes, 

 where it captures a vast number of mice and moles, which con- 

 stitute the chief part of its diet. As it destroys but few small 

 birds, and never attacks poultry, it is regarded with consider- 

 able favor by the farmer. It is easily distinguished from other 



