SWAINSON'S HAWK 225 



structure, perhaps 3 feet long in its doubled form. The lining be- 

 neath the eggs consisted of fresh green twigs from the nest tree, 

 with the leaves and catkins attached. Below this was some half-dry 

 grass or hay ; below that, dry weed stalks ; and below these, a lower 

 layer of green leaves (now wilted) and a quantity of coarse bark. 

 A few downy feathers adhered to the outer sticks of the nest." 



Bendire (1892) mentions a nest that he found in Oregon, "fully 

 50 feet up" in a large cottonwood; also some nests found by Capt. 

 B. F. Goss in North Dakota that were "in the high timber along the 

 streams from 40 to 60 feet up." He says further : "In southern Ari- 

 zona, especially in the vicinity of Fort Huachuca, where this Hawk 

 is a resident and exceedingly common, Lieut. H. C. Benson, Fourth 

 Cavalry, U. S. Army, found forty-one of their nests betAveen May 

 12 and June 18, 1887. All of these were placed in low mesquite 

 trees, from 3 to 15 feet from the ground. A few found by me near 

 Tucson, in the spring of 1872, were located in similar trees from 10 

 to 18 feet from the ground." 



In California the nesting season is earlier than it is farther north. 

 Mr. Sharp (1902), referring to San Diego County, says: 



Nesting begins in April. My earliest record is April 15. Fresh eggs may 

 be taken until tlie middle of May, but the later ones are second sets. Third 

 sets are very unusual and show an amount of perseverance in the birds that 

 should be respected. 



The nest of the Swainson hawk is the usual bulky, unsightly mass of sticks 

 of the raptores, and is placed near the top or on a small outlying branch of a 

 cottonwood or sycamore at an elevation of about 50 feet. (My records run 

 from 35 to 75 feet.) Occasionally a live oak will be taken but as I know of 

 only one such instance, it can hardly be considered regular in this section, at least. 



* * * Although the birds — even if their eggs are taken — will return to the 

 same locality year after year and generally to their first nest I have never 

 known them to attempt a second set in a nest just disturbed. 



They sometimes will occupy an old nest nearby, but in almost every in- 

 stance in my experience have built a new nest quite near to the old one but 

 a little higlier up and a little further out towards the end of the branch, as 

 though they had learned wisdom by experience. On May 5, 1901, a set of two 

 eggs was taken from a sycamore about fifty feet from the ground, nowhere 

 near the top of the tree. The birds moved to another sycamore 200 yards 

 away and by May 12 a week later, had built another nest at the top of the 

 tree and seventy-two feet from the ground. This also contained two eggs 

 which were taken. The birds then moved on a few hundred yards to a much 

 taller sycamore and built a nest in the top of that, and well out of reach and 

 raised their young in peace. 



The highest nest of which I can find any record is mentioned by 

 W. L. Dawson (1923), "100 feet up in a giant yellow^ pine", in Modoc 

 County, Calif. He also shows a photograph of a nest in a giant cactus, 

 or saguaro, in Arizona. Wright M. Pierce sent me photographs of a 

 nest in a Joshua tree in the Mojave Desert (pi. 64). 



