166 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of Krider's hawk are similar to those 

 of other red-tailed hawks, due allowance being made for its environ- 

 ment. It evidently jDrefers to nest well up in big trees, but in the 

 prairie regions, Avhere heavy timber is scarce, it is often obliged to 

 nest at a low elevation. It apparently nests somewhat later than the 

 eastern redtail, as the records given below show. The Rev. P. B. 

 Peabody (1895) has published data on eight nests found in southern 

 Minnesota, on dates ranging from April 22 to May 11, six of the dates 

 being in May. This hawk shows no partiality for any particular 

 kind of tree ; the eight nests were divided thus : 2 in elms, 2 in Avhite 

 oaks, and 1 each in basswood, rock maj^le, black oak, and black 

 walnut. The heights from the ground were 30, 40, 50, 60, and 75 

 feet. Two interesting nests he describes as follows : 



Locality, a heavily wooded island. Nest in a great elm, nearly inaccessible, 

 far out on horizontally spreading branches of a large main bough, at the very 

 top ; an old, broad and flat nest, roughly made of large sticks, with hollow, 

 twelve inches in diameter. Lining, fibrous bark, twigs, feathers of small birds. 

 * * * Locality, the very steep, deep, and heavily wooded bank of river, 

 fringing a cultivated plateau. One mile from nest III. A flat, old nest, far out, 

 nearly over the water, on leaning branch of rock maple, sixty feet up. Large 

 sticks. Lining, soft fibrous bark and grass. 



Dr. R, M. Anderson (1897) describes five nests found by him in 

 Iowa. One of these was an old Swainson's hawk's nest, and another 

 had been previously occupied by a red-tailed hawk and the following 

 year by a great horned owl. Three of his nests were in burr oaks, 

 46, 50, and 57l^ feet up, and one was in a black oak 35 feet from the 

 ground. He noted that the nests all contained green, leafy twigs, 

 mainly cottonwood and poplar, which appeared to be renewed daily. 



M. A. Carriker, Jr. (1902), found an interesting nest of this hawk, 

 near Warbonnet, Nebr., on a ledge about 20 feet from the base of a 

 cliff in a canyon. He says of it : "The site had evidently been used 

 by the birds for several successive years, for the pile of sticks com- 

 posing the nest was at least one and one-half feet in thickness and 

 three feet in diameter, occupying a pocket on the ledge. Fragments 

 of skulls, vertebrae, and feet of various rodents lay scattered about, 

 together with the vertebrae of a large snake and some fragments of a 

 recently killed prairie-dog." 



The only nest I ever examined was found on June 1, 1901, near 

 Stump Lake, N. Dak. It was about 30 feet from the ground in the 

 topmost branches of a small elm. One of the parents, a very light 

 colored bird, was sailing about overhead and screaming anxiously 

 kreeah^ kree-a-a-ah., a prolonged squealing whistle. It was a large 

 nest of sticks, lined with dry grass, and contained three very young 

 hawks, a pipped Qgg, parts of a cottontail rabbit, two ground squir- 

 rels, and two field mice. Within a few feet of the tree was an old elm 



