EED-BELLIED HAWK 205 



A brief description of these nests will illustrate tlie variety of situa- 

 tions chosen (see pi. 59). The first was in a small, densely wooded, 

 swampy swale, such as our eastern bird sometimes chooses; and the 

 nest was 40 feet from the ground in a leaning sycamore. The second 

 was found after a long search through an extensive cottonwood flat, 

 open in some places and thickly wooded in others ; we finally flushed 

 the hawk off her nest, about 70 feet up in a tall cottonwood ; this nest 

 held three downy young. As we walked down a cart path close to 

 the bank of a river, among an open growth of tall sycamores in a 

 narrow valley, the third nest was seen 68 feet from the ground in 

 one of these tall trees ; it was new but empty. In a patch of smaller 

 sycamores and willows we found the fourth nest, from which we 

 flushed the bird; this nest was 40 feet up in a slender leaning syca- 

 more, so slender that we had to rope it to a larger tree before it was 

 safe to climb it ; this held three eggs. The fifth nest required a thor- 

 ough search in a thick patch of large willows and other dense growth 

 in a swampy hollow ; we finally rapped the hawk off a very large old 

 nest only 30 feet up in a spreading willow and collected four eggs 

 from it. While we were driving along the road we saw a nest about 

 50 feet up in a tall sycamore, which towered above all the surrounding 

 trees; we supposed it was a redtail's nest, being in such an exposed 

 situation, but were surprised to see a red-bellied hawk fly from it; 

 this yielded a set of three eggs. The seventh and last nest was fully 

 75 feet from the ground in the top of a tall slender eucalyptus in the 

 center of a grove of these trees; it was a small nest, and the tail of 

 the sitting bird projected over the edge of it ; as the tree was swaying 

 badly in a strong breeze we did not care to climb it. 



C. S. Sharp (1906) says that these hawks "have a great fondness 

 for Eucalyptus groves, making their nests at times on the masses of 

 bark that have sloughed off and collected in some large crotch of the 

 main branches." He continues : 



Since 1S98 I have had good opportunity for observing an isolated pair. These 

 birds have occupied six different nests — all In Eucalyptus trees — either in groves 

 or as shade trees on sides of the road, the extremes being about a mile apart. 

 Every year but one they have been levied on for one set of eggs. On one year 

 only was a second set taken from them. After the removal of the first clutch 

 the birds have gone to the nearest nest — generally to a nest in the same grove 

 and only a few rods away and have occupied it for a second, never going from 

 one extreme limit of their range to the other. 



One nest was for three years occupied first by a pair of Pacific horned owls. 

 In 1899 I found the hawk on the nest which held two fresh eggs, and two young 

 owls were in the branches of the next tree. As that was then the only nest in 

 the grove it looked as if there had been a rather hasty eviction. In another 

 nest of this pair in 1898 I found three eggs of the hawk and one of the long- 

 eared owl. 



