no THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



of the dead birds as they fell from the trees until 

 I had killed the last one. Being anxious to have 

 a good series of this kind of bird of prey in the 

 museum study-collections, I offered a small price 

 for large hawks, thinking to obtain a few speci- 

 mens in addition to those I could collect myself. 

 One day, shortly after Thanksgiving, a man drove 

 up to my house having in his wagon a large, 

 roughly built, slatted crate. He told me he knew 

 of my desire to get hawks, having heard it from 

 a neighbor, and that he had collected some during 

 the past few days and had them ready for delivery. 

 Examining more closely I found there were in his 

 crate twenty-two red-shouldered and red-tailed 

 hawks alive and uninjured, and so recently cap- 

 tured that they had not had time to wear or dirty 

 their plumage. These birds had all been taken 

 in an ordinary steel muskrat trap placed on top 

 of a long pole, which for this purpose had been 

 driven into the ground of some meadow which 

 the hawks frequented. The jaws of the steel 

 trap, being bound with cotton wadding or other 

 soft material, did not injure or break the hawks' 

 legs or lame the birds in any way. This will 

 give an idea of the abundance of these large 

 hawks at this time. 



I cannot dwell on the details of my field-work 

 during these two winters, and can only call atten- 

 tion in general to the great numbers of the birds 



