CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS, 257 



early in the season were merely masses of sticks and twigs, with 

 a slight hollow to contain the eggs, and had no special lining. But 

 nests examined after the growth of leaves — usually about the end 

 of May — were more or less lined with twigs plucked with green 

 leaves on them, and these, when slightly wilted, readily flatten down 

 and form a wind-proof screen. 



' ' In general appearance this nest is much like that of the red-tail, 

 but the position is different, being usually less elevated. I have 

 seen many that I could not reach from the ground. The favourite 

 sites are the crown of a dense clump of willows, or the highest fork 

 of a low scrub oak ; occasionally I have observed the nest at a height 

 of 20 or even 30 feet, in some poplar, but this is unusual. 



"The eggs are commonly three but sometimes four in number; 

 they are more or less spherical and vary much in colour. The young, 

 when hatched, are the purest and downiest looking of innocents, 

 and it is only on examination of the tiny though promising beak 

 and claws that one can credit that little snowball with the makings 

 of a ruthless and bloodthirsty marauder." 



First seen on April 4th, 1892, at Indian Head, Sask.; common 

 by the i6th. May 25th, found a nest with one egg, nest in live 

 poplar, made of sticks, lined with a few twigs from the living poplar 

 trees with the leaves on. All the nests that I saw later were built 

 in the same way, and all contained the green twigs and leaves. 

 The}^ invariably repair the old nests and only one new nest was seen 

 during the season. Nests contained 2-4 eggs. Farther west they 

 build their nests chiefly in clumps of willow along the banks of 

 streams and the edges of sloughs, and scarcely ever in thick woods. 

 Where there are no willows or trees, they will build their nest in a 

 clump of rose bushes or upon a "cut bank" (a cliff of earth by a 

 stream). Their principal food is gophers and mice, of which they 

 kill a great number. They are a great benefit to the farmer, but 

 he does not seem to know it, for in southwestern Manitoba, last 

 autumn (1891), I counted no less than nine dead buzzards along a 

 trail in less than half a mile. Found two nests in trees at Crane 

 lake, Sask., in June, 1894. The nests were built of sticks and lined 

 with dried grass. One had two eggs, the other three. I shot one 

 of the old birds as it came from the nest and it proved to be a male, 

 showing that both took turns at the nest. This species is a very 

 17 



