THE NEW SPORT OF "HAWKING" 283 



to the other nest, from which one of the " Robins " had 

 flown as I rapped the tree, and in which, much to his surprise, 

 he found five Sharp-shinned Hawk's eggs ! 



A recent Fourth of July was very pleasantly passed by 

 a mountain lake in Kent, away from the noise of man, but 

 close to the heart of nature. The pleasantest part of it all 

 was when, astride a branch forty feet up a hemlock, on the 

 mountain-side overlooking the beautiful lake, I played with 

 a brood of tiny Sharpshins in their nest, downy little fel- 

 lows, no larger than newly hatched domestic chickens. Their 

 mother was not so bold as some, and remonstrated only 

 vocally from a distance. The nest contained feathers and 

 bones of small birds, and yet, presently, just under a neigh- 

 boring tree, where I sat to watch the hawk, a beautiful Black- 

 throated Blue Warbler and a pair of Canada Warblers were 

 gleaning insect food for young, unmindful of " sharpshins " 

 which were liable at any time to be felt and to make orphans 

 of their children. 



I will conclude this description of the hawks in their wild 

 fastnesses by some account of their resorts as I have found 

 them in North Dakota. In various explorations in strips 

 of timber along the shores of lakes and rivers, in early May, 

 I have found the Red-tailed and Cooper's Hawks breeding 

 abundantly, with the Swainson's and Sparrow Hawks getting 

 ready to do so. The Red-tail here is the geographical race 

 or subspecies called Krider's Hawk, but it is essentially our 

 old friend of the East. About every half-mile along the 

 Goose River — wonderfully crooked, as are all prairie streams 

 — I found a huge nest high up in some enormous tree, usu- 

 ally an elm, seldom less than eighty feet from the ground. 

 I wanted to see the eggs of Krider's Hawk, yet did not feel 

 equal to such terrible ascents. Fortunately I met a sailor, 

 who was glad enough to go aloft from that flat prairie, — in 



