FERRUGINOUS ROUGHLEG 285 



in great mortality among many other forms of wild life and has 

 provoked bitter discussion. How much better it would have been 

 to encourage these and other useful hawks to do their good w^ork ! 

 But unfortunately the ignorant prejudice against all hawks has re- 

 duced this useful species to the verge of extinction, and allowed the 

 ground squirrels to increase. 



Nesting. — My acquaintance with this magnificent hawk began in 

 North Dakota in 1901. On our first day there, May 30, we found 

 two nests in the heavy timber around Stump Lake. The first nest 

 was about 40 feet from the ground in the top of a tall swamp oak; 

 the hawk left the nest as we approached, uttering her harsh notes of 

 protest and sailing in majestic circles, as she mounted higher and 

 higher until a mere speck in the sky. It was a large nest, made of 

 heavy sticks, cow dung, and other rubbish and lined with grass and 

 strips of inner bark; it held five young hawks fully a week old. 

 The other nest was similar in construction but was only 20 feet up 

 in a leaning swamp oak on the edge of a little valley; it contained 

 three nearly fresh eggs. Both nests were in commanding situations 

 where the birds could have a good outlook. Two more nests were 

 found on June 4. One of these, containing two fresh eggs, was 30 

 feet up in a swamp oak, towering conspicuously above a strip of 

 timber along the lake shore. The bird in full melanistic plumage 

 was seen to leave the nest at short range. The nest was made of 

 large sticks and lined with dead flags, strips of the same, and a few 

 sprigs of green leaves; it measured 24 inches in diameter and 12 

 inches in height; the inner cavity was 9 inches wide and 4 inches 

 deep. The other nest-, found that day, was 45 to 50 feet up in the 

 top of an elm (pi. 75). 



During my two seasons in southwestern Saskatchewan we found 

 seven nests in 1905 and only three in 1906, illustrating the prejudice 

 of farmers and ranchmen against even this most useful liawk. These 

 nests were all in trees, willows, cottonwoods, and poplars, but at much 

 lower elevations; three of them were only about 10 feet from the 

 ground and the highest w^as only 30 feet up. A typical large nest 

 measured 36 inches in diameter and 24 inches high. Betw^een May 

 30 and June 28 the nests contained young, most of wiiich were 

 hatched before June 1. Nearly half of the adults seen were in the 

 melanistic phase, and in two cases we found a light bird mated witli 

 a dark one. 



In the regions where I have found this hawk breeding all the nests 

 I have seen have been in trees, and I believe it prefers to nest in trees 

 where these are available. It selects the largest trees it can find with 

 no special preference for any one species. I believe, however, that 

 its territory is selected on account of the food supply rather than by 



