286 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the existence of suitable nesting sites. As it finds what it wants on 

 the open grassy plains, arid badlands, sagebrush plains, and even 

 deserts, it often builds its nest on hillsides, cutbanks, buttes, cliffs, or 

 rocky pinnacles. I have never seen such a nest, but more than half 

 of the nests for which I have the data before me were in such 

 situations. 



E. S. Rolfe (1896) found, in the Devils Lake region of North 

 Dakota, "a somewhat carelessly constructed nest of the usual mate- 

 rials on the straw-covered roof of an abandoned stable" and another 

 "on top of an old straw stack in the midst of a stubblefield", both 

 of which were not far from more characteristic nesting sites. He 

 says, however: 



But the distinctive nost of this species, iu this region at least, is placed ou 

 the ground on the summit, or well up the sides, of a hill that is crowned with 

 stone and boulders, or along the verge of some stiff gorge through which a 

 coulee finds its way. If on the summit of the hill, it is invariably enclosed 

 and held in place by boulders, and if up the side of the hill, a jutting boulder 

 forming a natural shelf is selected to stay the bulky, loosely-constructed nest in 

 place. The nest material is uniformly sticks varying in size from that of a 

 twig to one an inch or more in diameter and of all lengths suitable, well inter- 

 twined together, often, with one or more bleached buffalo bones. The lining is 

 of turf, bunches of dried grass with roots adhering, well dried "cow chips" and 

 the like, and the whole forms a structure suggesting that of the eagle as usually 

 depicted in old-time illustrations, and, aside from its exposure to attack by 

 small animals, somewhat superior to the average tree nest. 



E. S. Cameron (1914) describes and illustrates some picturesque 

 nests of this type in Montana. Some of these nests are evidently occu- 

 pied for many years in succession. P. A. Taverner (1919) writes: 



One built upon a salient buttress of a cliff had increased with annual additions 

 until it formed a mass of material twelve or fifteen feet high. The lower masses 

 of the nest were rotten and merged into the original clay foundation whilst it 

 grew fresher towards the top until the final layer was of this year's construc- 

 tion—mostly sage-brush roots. In a little hollow adjacent to such a nest we 

 found an accunuilation of over a bushel of dried bones, and scraps of gophers 

 that had been devoured by successive generations of young Rough-legs. 



P. M. Silloway (1903) found nests of these hawks in Montana as 

 high as 55 feet in pine trees; and Stanley G. Jewett (1926) records 

 five nests found by him in Oregon at heights varying 6 to 9 feet in 

 junipers. J. H. Bowles has sent me the following notes from eastern 

 Washington : 



There are two distinct types of nesting sites, one on the ground and the other 

 in the little stunted juniper trees that grow scattered about on the sandhills. 

 The ground nests are sometimes built on the ledge of a cliff, usually very easy 

 of access, but oftener on an outcropping of rock on the side of a steep canyon 

 where the collector can walk directly to them. Ground nests are seldom large, 

 sometimes being simply the remains of a very old nest with only a few chunks 

 of dry horse or cow dung added. The tree nests are very different, some of them 



