BROAD-WINGED HAWK 247 



picture. A similar incident is described in the following notes re- 

 ceived from J. Hooper Bowles: 



The tail of the sitting bird could be plainly seen sticking over the edge of 

 the nest, but no amount of pounding on the base of the tree would move her. 

 Consequently my brother climbed up, and much to our surprise she still re- 

 mained on the nest when he reached it. I then climbed up and joined him, but 

 the hawk stayed perfectly still and did not show the least sign of fear or 

 anger. In fact, she showed rather less emotion than a "broody" hen sitting. 

 We stroked her and finally lifted her off the nest and tossed her into the air, 

 when she flew to a tree not far away where she was soon joined by her mate. 

 They then flew about among the trees uttering their creaking, wheezy notes, 

 never showing a sign of the anger that is common with most of the other 

 hawks. I have seldom seen a bird of any species that was so docile as this 

 female hawk when we were handling her. 



Mr. Shelley writes to me, as follows : 



Two immature broad-winged hawks early on the morning of September 18, 

 1932, were noticed flying about the edge of a sugar-maple woods, some 200 

 yards in extent. They could be individually identified by one having much the 

 lighter breast and belly; also their accent on the calls were of varied pitch 

 and tone and emphasized their amateurish a i tempts. Their loud cries were 

 stressed by the thief, thief and softer call notes of blue jays, of which six or 

 eight congregated and gyrated through the woodland with the hawks, as in 

 some spirit of play. From one end of the woods to the other they flew, calling 

 in turn followed by the jays, now and then circling to some tall tree on the 

 wood's edge to perch a few minutes and call and preen the plumage. Their 

 flights were mostly semicircular or spiral, round about over the maples and 

 among the upper branches, occasionally out over my position and two nearby 

 mowings, usually flapping as they flew but sometimes on a rising current of air 

 sailing on set wings, nearly every such flight followed by alighting for a period 

 of some three minutes, when the activities would again be entered, random in 

 purpose with no apparent reason for the display other than testing of their 

 powers. At no time were they seen to molest the blue jays — ^forever noisy, 

 associating in the whole performance. Each day following up to and including 

 the September 25, early in the forenoon, the hawks went through their per- 

 formance along the edge of this woods, with the jays always attending, spend- 

 ing half an hour or more at their activities. On the twenty-fifth they were shot 

 at by an ignorant person and thus frightened away. 



About its nest I have alwa^^s found it solicitous but never aggres- 

 sive. Often it will betray the presence of its nest by its peculiar 

 plaintive notes and will continue its doleful complaint long after the 

 nest has been robbed. But I have never known one to attempt or 

 even threaten to attack me. Mr. Burns (1911), however, cites sev- 

 eral cases where the intruder has been attacked. And Dr. B. H. 

 Warren (1890) says that A, G. Boardman (probably George A., of 

 Calais, Maine) "finds it to be courageous and spirited. A man whom 

 he had employed to obtain a nest, was attacked with great fury, 

 while ascending the tree; his cap was torn from his head, and he 

 would have been seriously injured if the bird had not been shot. 

 Another instance is mentioned by Dr. Wood, where the hawk had 



