UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES AFIELD 147 



which were always hanging around ready for any 

 mischief they might do. The crow solved his diffi- 

 culties by spreading his wings and flying home. 



Once in a big field beside the Wabash River, 

 my field assistant, my daughter, and I watched 

 a pair of kingbirds and several other birds, smaller 

 but flying so high we could not differentiate them 

 without field glasses, fly after and over a big hawk, 

 the kingbirds constantly dropping to pick its head 

 and eyes, then rising straight in the air. At times, 

 they seemed actually to perch on its back be- 

 tween its shoulders, but the height was so great 

 and the flight of the hawk so rapid I could not 

 state positively that they did this. 



The first summer that we lived in our present 

 Cabin, an immense flock of red-winged blackbirds 

 nested in the reeds in a small bay directly across the 

 lake from us. A pair of big grey and tan chicken 

 hawks had their nest somewhere in the tall timber 

 of Kestler's Island high above the bay. Through- 

 out the summer these hawks hung above the cat- 

 tails and bulrushes, swooping down as often as they 

 were hungry, almost never failing to carry prey 

 as they arose to sail back to the woods. Then with 

 angry cries, practically the whole male population 

 of the swamp would arise and pursue the hawks. 

 Sometimes crows would come to the assistance of 

 the red-wings, but so long as they remained about 

 their nesting affairs so long the hawks preyed upon 

 them. When the red-wings were gone, the hawks 



