150 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ridge between an open bog and a maple swamp, was occupied by a 

 red-shouldered hawk in 1920; in 1928 it was occupied by a pair of 

 broad-winged hawks; the following year a pair of redtails took 

 possession of it and raised a brood of young; in 1930 it remained 

 unused; in 1931 the redtails were back in it again and raised an- 

 other brood; but in 1932 it was deserted again; raising a brood suc- 

 cessfully did not encourage the hawks to return. 



Our longest record covers a period of 13 years, during which time 

 the nest was actually found in only four years. The territory covers 

 a very extensive area in Mansfield and Norton in which there are a 

 number of large patches of heavy timber of various kinds, white 

 pines, oaks, and maples, interspersed with open bogs, swampy woods, 

 cleared lands, and pasture. The redtail's nest was first discovered by 

 my field companions, F. H. Carpenter and C. S. Day, in 1920 ; it was 

 in an ideal situation, 54 feet from the ground on horizontal branches, 

 against the trunk of a giant white pine that stood on the edge of a 

 grove of heavy pines, overlooking an open meadow. We did not 

 find the nest again until 1924, when we discovered it fully a quarter 

 of a mile away ; it w^as 52 feet up in one of a small group of scattered 

 white pines in an open situation. Two years later the hawks were 

 back in the old original nest in the big pine. This nest remained 

 vacant until 1932, when it was again occupied. I have no doubt that 

 the hawks nested somewhere in that big tract during all the inter- 

 vening 3'ears, for we often saw them, but were unable to locate the 

 nest in a region so difficult to hunt thoroughly. Mr. Day, who has 

 all the eggs collected from this localit}'^, is convinced that three 

 different females presided over this territory, as shown by the three 

 distinct types of eggs laid. 



As mentioned above, red-tailed hawks invaded, in three successive 

 years, three separate localities that had been occupied previously by 

 red-shouldered hawks. I suspect that these three invasions were all 

 made by the same pair of redtails, as the second and third localities 

 are less than a mile and a half from the first. The "reservoir woods" 

 in Rehoboth was once a fine, large tract of heavy chestnut, oak, and 

 maple timber, partially swampy and drained by a small stream. A 

 pair of red-shouldered hawks had nested continuously in these woods 

 from 1882 to 1923, when the last nest we found there was built iu 

 a large scarlet oak 48 feet from the ground. In 1924 this nest was 

 occupied by a pair of barred owls and in 1928 by a pair of red-tailed 

 hawks {pi. 44) ; I did not visit the locality during the intervening 

 years. The following year, 1929, we found the redtails nesting in 

 the Blue Ridge nest referred to above. In 1930, they, or another 

 pair, invaded another big tract of hardwood timber, Goff's woods, 

 less than a mile away, where red-shouldered hawks had nested for 

 nearly 50 years, and built a new nest 45 feet up in a red oak. And 



