EASTERN RED-TAILED HAWK 149 



they were circling near to-gether, the male would lower his legs 

 and adjust his circles so that he came above his mate, and about 

 four times he actually touched her back, or so it seemed." M. P. 

 Skinner says in his notes: "These hawks at times performed won- 

 derful evolutions high in the air, either one bird alone or several at a 

 time. Such hawks would mount up to a high altitude, then half 

 close the wings and drop down on an invisible incline at great speed 

 only to open the wings again and shoot up at an equal angle. This 

 was repeated again and again while the hawk described a series of 

 deep V's and gradually passed out of sight in the distance." 



Mr. Sumner (MS.) saw a male western redtail approach a female 

 that was perched in a tree, hang for a moment just over her, then 

 alight on her back and stay there about 40 seconds, with quite a bit 

 of wing motion to balance himself; he then got off and perched 

 beside her on the branch, but he soon flapped off and began to circle. 



Clarence F. Stone writes to me about the mating antics of a pair 

 of red-tailed hawks on a lofty horizontal limb of an elm tree near 

 their nest : 



Stopping to survey the woods before I entered, I beheld a pair of Red-tailed 

 Hawks cavorting step by step, towards each other. Since they had not dis- 

 covered my presence the performance continued to a finish. Stepping side- 

 ways until they were wing to wing and facing each other almost breast to 

 breast, both (birds suddenly dropped down backwards until there was physical 

 contact below the limb, and thus the act of copulation took place. Immediately 

 after, both hawks took to the air around and around each other in wide 

 circles. 



Another recorded note concerning the Red-tailed Hawk tells of a pair 

 proceeding to reline their many years old nest, but before time for eggs one 

 of the birds was killed by a farmer. All the remainder of that season, the 

 bereaved hawk hunted and lived in the nest woods. On the following Spring 

 this Red-tail returned alone and even did quite a bit of relining of nest — so 

 much that I climbed up to see if there were eggs. As this nest was near home 

 I visited it frequently during the season up to June, but always the Red-tail 

 remained uumated. I think this instance shows "faithfulness" more than lack 

 of opportunity to mate again. 



Nesting. — My personal experience with the nesting habits of the 

 red-tailed hawk in southeastern Massachusetts has been limited to 

 the study of 19 nests over a period of 40 years, from which it ap- 

 pears that it is not a common bird here. Twice we found two nests 

 in one season and one year we found three. The local distribution 

 has been referred to above. Contrary to the experience of others 

 elsewhere, we have found the redtail much less constant in its at- 

 tachment to its nesting haunts than the redshoulder. In three cases 

 we found them in the same patch of woods, but in different nests, 

 for two years in succession, and once for three years. A popular 

 nest at Blue Ridge, 35 feet up in a red oak in mixed woods, on a 



